


Bechloe - PP3 - What Really Happened..

by when_you_know_you_know



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-02-20 11:25:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 35,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13145679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/when_you_know_you_know/pseuds/when_you_know_you_know
Summary: Not enough Bechloe content in PP3 for your liking? Well here is what REALLY happened on/off screen**PP3 spoilers obviously due to exact dialogue and scenes being written..**





	1. The Apartment

“You know what? I will take it! I need a distraction anyway! I love it! Here we go!”

Chloe furrowed her brow slightly as she watched Beca turn on the spot and scramble between the clothes hung up on their clothes rail that acted as a divider between the beds in their apartment. That was a far more enthusiastic reaction than she’d expected her best friend to have when finding out that they had that Bellas reunion tonight at the Brooklyn Aquarium. Beca wasn’t usually keen on plans suddenly being sprung upon her (even when it had been organised several weeks ago).

The redhead sat down on one of the chairs at their small kitchen table, pulling delicately at the Bellas scarf that she had tied a little too tightly around her neck earlier, and she glanced at Fat Amy who sat on the edge of the fold-out couch that acted as a double bed that Chloe and Beca shared, “What happened?” she asked the Australian.

“She got fired today” Amy replied quickly.

Chloe’s eyebrows rose in shock as she let out a gasp, “ _No_!!”

She knew Beca better than anyone else. Beca was her very best friend, having bonded with her in college. Well..if ‘bonded’ meant barging into Beca’s shower one day (much to Beca’s horror) and dueting with her then yeah, they bonded. Follow it up with a shared conversation on the bug tattoos they both had and a much later heart-to-heart about how terrible their childhood upbringings were - by the time Beca had reached the end of her freshman year Chloe was certain she never wanted to spend another moment of her life without the petite brunette in it.

So she had stuck around Barden University for a further three years, repeating her senior year while Beca continued through college. And while she’d implicitly told everyone it was because Russian Lit was a really hard subject, in actual fact it was because she’d had the hugest crush on Beca in college, and had wanted to make the most of the opportunity to share captaincy of the Bellas with her. Those three years meant that the two women had become closer than any two friends could get, to the point when they had even begun communicating without words.

While most of the Bellas moved back home after graduation, both Beca and Chloe had agreed that there wasn’t really much of a family for either of them to ‘go home’ to. So they, along with Fat Amy (Beca’s long-time college roommate), had decided to rent an apartment in Atlanta to suit Beca’s blossoming career at Residual Heat Records. There they had been able to afford a three bed apartment between the three of them.

Within a year Beca had been head hunted to become a Music Producer for an NYC-based company called ‘BFD Records’ (‘Big Fucking Deal Records’ as Fat Amy had fondly nicknamed it) and the trio had moved to Brooklyn, with nothing really keeping them in Atlanta any more.

The living conditions weren’t nearly as ‘luxurious’, with Beca and Chloe agreeing to share the fold-out sofa bed in the small studio apartment while Fat Amy ‘shot-gunned’ the double bed beside it. But it was all that Beca could realistically afford for them. And at the end of the day, it was home.

So yeah, Chloe knew Beca very well. And as such, it surprised her that the brunette had been fired. She knew Beca had a bit of a surly attitude from time to time and that her sarcasm could often be misconstrued as aggressive or stand-off-ish behaviour to those who didn’t know her. She also knew, having had many the bedtime conversation with Beca, that her best friend had come to realise that being a music producer really hadn’t been as brilliant as she’d hoped it’d be. Chloe knew Beca had been unhappy and frustrated with her job. But she certainly couldn’t imagine the company wanting to fire her.

“I didn’t get  _fired_!” Beca said in an exasperated tone, still rifling behind the clothes rail, presumable looking for the tub which she’d placed her old Bellas outfits in, “I quit!”

That made more sense to Chloe, having spent far too many moments over recent months with Beca getting in late from work and rambling about how shit her day had been and how tempted she was to quit. In those moments Chloe would just sit silently in their bed, having paused whatever Netflix show she’d been watching on her laptop, and allowed Beca to assume her favourite position: laid horizontally with her head on Chloe’s lap while she stared at the ceiling, babbling angrily while Chloe stroked/plaited her hair.

“You did?” Chloe said brightly, a big smile brushing over her face, thrilled that her best friend had finally made a decision that would make her far happier, “Congratulations!!”

“ _Thank_  you!” Beca said, poking her head between the hanging clothes, then pointing at Chloe while she looked at Fat Amy, “ _That’s_  the reaction I was after!”

“Do I even want to know how Amy reacted?” Chloe asked cautiously, knowing just how quickly Fat Amy could jump to conclusions. It wouldn’t be too far fetched to believe that the Australian probably bundled the petite brunette and tried to hug her too hard. Beca had confessed to Chloe once that she hated it when people enveloped her in hugs because she was so small – she felt as though she were suffocating.

Beca raised her eyebrows at the redhead and Chloe knew what that meant. It meant that every way Chloe thought Amy had reacted was exactly how the blonde had reacted, “Ah..right..” she added quietly, a sympathetic smile on her face.

And Beca disappeared behind the clothes rail again, before quickly muscling back through it carrying a large plastic tub that her old Bellas uniforms lived in, plopping it on the fold-out sofa-bed in the space beside Fat Amy.


	2. The Aquarium

The Bellas all stood in Brooklyn Aquarium, looking out wistfully at the sprightly young Barden Bellas, performing beautifully before a packed audience. It had been a massive kick in the teeth for them to be invited here, with every expectation to be performing themselves, when in actual fact they had only been invited here to watch.

“I bet they all have boyfriends.” Chloe said in a watery voice and Beca screwed her face up, it being such an odd conclusion to have.

Beca turned to look at her best friend who stood directly to her right. There were tears in Chloe’s eyes and she looked heartbroken. And in that moment Beca’s stomach twisted.

Over the three years since graduation, Beca and Chloe had become so close that Beca felt there was nothing more left for her to find out about the redhead. But relationships and dating was one thing that they rarely spoke about, and Beca had no idea why. Chloe had been there for her when Beca had broken up with Jesse. Of course she had. They were best friends after all. And Beca had spoken to Chloe all about how the long-distance thing hadn’t worked with Jesse and how she’d actually stopped having feelings for the dude in their senior year of college but hadn’t realised until just before Worlds.

It was also around that time that Beca revealed that she was as attracted to women as she was men and Chloe had admitted that she was also as attracted to women as she was men. Then that was it. Nothing else had really been mentioned about any of it since.

What Beca had failed to mention to Chloe was that she was in fact very attracted to her. Like, very very attracted to her. And that it hadn’t been until just before Worlds when she’d realised.. since then Beca had been battling with her feelings, convincing herself that telling Chloe in the slightest would ruin everything, and she valued her friendship too much. Those feelings weren’t helped of course when they’d had to start sharing a bed when they moved to Brooklyn. But Beca battled on, having to deal with the way her heart skipped a beat when she woke up every day to see Chloe’s sloppy morning face directly beside her as the redhead continued to sleep..

It had been two very long years – 700 mornings, give or take a couple of days – but Beca wouldn’t have it any other way.

So to hear Chloe randomly mention the Barden Bellas probably all having boyfriends made Beca’s stomach twist. Because Chloe looked so disheartened that she didn’t have a boyfriend. And Beca immediately felt jealous, because she didn’t want Chloe to have a boyfriend. She wanted her to have her.

The brunette turned back to the Barden Bellas as they continued to dance and sing effortlessly and she let out a sigh. She missed how simple life used to be when they were college students. Now they were all in their mid-twenties, mostly with jobs but jobs they didn’t enjoy or that they struggled with.

Shit. Jobs. What the fuck was she going to do now? Beca’s face dropped. She’d bed been the key breadwinner, paying the rent for the studio apartment she shared with Chloe and Amy. Without her job they’d all have to move out. Beca would no longer share a bed with Chloe. And Beca wasn’t sure how easily she’d be able to sleep without that warm body tucking up beside her..

The Barden Bellas performance ended and Beca clapped politely. She needed a drink. They all did. And to her relief Chloe was the first to suggest it out-loud.


	3. The Marines

The Bellas stood on the landing strip at the army base, watching John and Gail cackling as they dashed towards a nearby hanger, wheeling their suitcases and filming equipment. Beca’s stomach sank. It was never good news when those two were around. They always seemed to be around to film her and The Bellas at their lowest.

Suddenly her friends around her shuffled on the spot, straightening up and sorting their hair. There had been a muttering about approaching marines and sure enough, as Beca looked ahead, she saw two marines approaching them with serious expressions on their faces. Beca had to admit, they weren’t terrible looking. One looked uncannily like Channing Tatum. And as she identified this to herself, Beca immediately realised what this meant. Her stomach knotted with jealousy.

Sure enough she noticed out of the corner of her eye Chloe straightening her body. But Beca was so caught up with trying to pick out things to immediately dislike about the approaching men, she missed Chloe turning her head to look at her, the redhead wanting to catch Beca’s eye and wordlessly tell her that one of the marines looked like Channing Tatum, her absolute favourite hunky actor.

“Welcome to Spain, Bellas!” ‘Channing’ said seriously.

Beca felt Chloe briefly nudge her arm with her elbow and the brunette zoned out, not paying attention to a single word the marines said to them. She was tired. Jet-lagged. And in absolutely no mood to be entertaining Chloe’s unnecessary excitement right now, no matter how much she loved her.

Beca heard Fat Amy ask if they would all be showering together and she watched the marines hesitate uncomfortably. She knew what the Australian was like, having no shame in bringing out the big guns when it came to implying sexual activities if she fancied a guy. Normally Beca found it amusing, but as ‘Channing’ glanced at his watch, informing them of what time they would be returning to the base this evening, Beca noticed Chloe’s arm rise into the air, looking at the marines and cocking her head flirtatiously.

“Um..1700 hours..” Beca watched a noticeably giddy smile spreading all over Chloe’s face while the redhead moved her hands about, her body in a position that was trying to be cute. It was working. Which is what made the knot in Beca’s stomach tighten. “…is that, like, after nighttime?” Chloe asked in a sickly sweet voice.

Beca knew that tone. It was the tone Chloe used when she spoke to dogs. It was the tone Chloe used when she greeted babies or young children. It was the tone Chloe used whenever she tried to persuade Beca to do something the woman really didn’t want to do (like going with her to see a sequel at the movies. Beca hated sequels). It was also the tone Chloe used when she was attracted to someone she had just met. And Beca hated it when the latter situation happened.

“Uh..yeah..” Beca heard ‘Channing’ answer, but she was too busy watching Chloe, hating the way her best friend appeared to be melting at the sight of him.

“Okay.” Chloe replied with another sickly sweet tone and Beca swallowed loudly as she looked down at the ground in frustration. Fortunately Fat Amy raised her hand and began asking the marines about ‘bases’. This was enough for the men to hurry them along, and the Bellas all followed Chicago and Zeke as they led them to a hanger to meet the other bands.

Beca held it together while she watched Chloe stride forward alongside Aubrey, the two women smiling and following Chicago with their eyes. The brunette, however, decided to hang back and walk behind all her friends, not wanting to hear the sound of Chicago’s voice any longer. She refused to admit she was jealous. And Amy, ever the loyal friend, hung back to walk with her..


	4. The Riff Off

Another riff off. Seriously, Beca had no idea how she and the rest of The Bellas got themselves into situations where they end up challenging people to riff offs but here they were again. Naturally the brunette had stood at the back of the group, allowing Chloe and Aubrey to take the lead when demonstrating how to do a riff off properly and at the moment she was stood behind Aubrey, glancing at Chloe who stood beside the blonde, explaining perfectly exactly how they had just performed the perfect riff-off.

A small smile grew on Beca’s face as Chloe spoke quickly and passionately. If there was one thing she loved the most about her best friend it was how passionate Chloe got about things. Particularly if it involved music. Particularly if it involved acapella.

The bands they stood opposite appeared to get the idea of what Chloe had explained, a credit to the redhead’s ability to explain things clearly and directly while keeping everyone’s attention. The moment Aubrey proposed the category of “Artists you didn’t know were Jewish”, Evermoist, Saddle Up, and Young Sparrow all straightened themselves, ready to join the Riff Off. Beca had to give it to her friends, they knew how to entice challengers that was for sure.

Evermoist were first up, sidling over to the Bellas, Calamity squaring up to Aubrey as she sang with a cocky expression. Beca watched at the woman then brushed her shoulder towards Chloe, and Beca felt her stomach knot. But rather than it being a knot of jealousy it was more of a knot of anger. Or..maybe it wasn’t anger? Whatever it was, it was making Beca feel like she wanted to shove everyone aside and step in front of Chloe to protect her. Which was a weird impulse to have considering she’d never felt like that before..

Saddle Up were next, continuing on from Evermoist’s song in the Riff Off, and Beca had drifted a little more behind Chloe, trying to gauge the other Bellas reactions. They seemed uneasy, but Beca had to admit, she was impressed. For bands who had no idea what a Riff Off was, they weren’t too bad at coming up with a song that applied to the ‘rules’ of the Riff Off.

When Young Sparrow jumped in to deploy their hip-hop take on ‘Call Me’ by Blondie, Beca began to shuffle her weight slightly. It would be their turn next. So she zoned out for a moment, trying to rattle through the lyrics of ‘Call Me’ to find a key word that she might be able to use as a hook to start the Bellas off with a new song.

Suddenly Beca froze as Young Sparrow were cut off by three words sung to perfection by the one voice Beca knew almost better than she knew her own.

“Love me harder”

Everything and everyone around Beca appeared to slow to a halt, and the brunette’s breath stuck in her lungs as she watched Chloe step forward to their opposition in slow motion. The sung words echoed in Beca’s ears as her heart raced. She couldn’t believe of all the songs Chloe had picked to power The Bellas along in the Riff Off, it was this song..

_“Oh my God!” Beca cried out, her eyes widening as the Spotify playlist she and Chloe had put on while they pre-game’d for Beca’s work’s New Years party, began playing ‘Love Me Harder’ by Ariana Grande, “I fucking love this song!!”_

_Chloe’s eyes had also widened, dashing over to the portable speaker that stood on a shelf above the sink in their little studio apartment, “Me too!” she squealed excitably, her third glass of prosecco beginning to escalate her volume as she added, “I’ve not heard it in years!”_

_“Not since-“ Beca began and Chloe joined her in finishing her sentence:_

_“-Graduation!” the two best friends said in unison, and they laughed together._

_Beca took a long swig from her forth bottle of beer, remembering how two years ago they’d accidentally listened to this song on repeat during graduation when Stacie had drunkenly put it on the speaker in The Bellas house and pressed repeat while she ground against the couch to the beat._

_The brunette sat back on the fold-out couch that acted as her and Chloe’s bed, their studio apartment that they shared with Fat Amy not having room for three beds. She smiled as she watched Chloe dancing somewhat seductively to the song as she sang along. Beca swallowed loudly as she admired her best friend’s outfit choice, her eyes glancing down at Chloe’s long legs that flowed from beneath her short blue party dress._

_“Cos if you want to keep me, you gotta gotta gotta gotta got to love me harder..” Chloe sang loudly with a broad smile on her face, closing her eyes as she sang into the top of her prosecco glass. And Beca let out a loud laugh, a sudden surge of energy bursting around her body as she scrambled off their bed to join her best friend in singing along loudly to the rest of the chorus, “And if you want to need me, you gotta gotta gotta gotta got to love me harder..”_

_Three days later and Beca wandered through the door of the apartment, finally home from work, singing under her breath “And if you really need me-“ but then stopped her singing immediately, letting out a groan._

_She closed the door behind her, and noticed Chloe was sat on their bed, her laptop on her lap, “Still got that song stuck in your head?” Chloe said with a light giggle._

_Beca shrugged her jacket off with a sigh, “Ugh yes, but it’s sooooo goooood!” She made her way over to the bed and fell onto it with another sigh._

_“Mmm..it’s been stuck in my head too..” Chloe agreed, and Beca looked up at her best friend, furrowing her brow as the redhead raised her eyebrows._

_“Wh-what?” Beca asked curiously._

_“Want me to play it?”_

_Beca paused. Then after a couple of moments she sat up, “Yeah alright” and as the song began to play both women let out small moans._

_“Ugh SO good!”_

_“SO good!”_

A smile grew on Chloe’s face as she heard the Bellas beginning to back her up while she sang the lyrics to the chorus of ‘Love Me Harder’ by Ariana Grande. This was her and Beca’s song. The one that they still hummed or sang from time to time, then rolled their eyes at each other because it was so annoying but catchy and oh-so good.

And as Chloe continued to sing the lyrics she slowly turned on the spot, thrilled that Beca was stood directly behind her. She grinned at her best friend, hoping that Beca would look up at her and catch her eye, but the brunette was too busy singing back up with her eyes closed, dancing to the beat she was singing.

Chloe knew Beca appreciated her choice in song. And with that satisfaction, Chloe turned back to their opponents and continued singing to the end of the chorus.

As the chorus came to a natural end, Beca joined Aubrey in completing the back-up, bringing her hand to the small of Chloe’s back while she leant over her best friend’s left shoulder and grinned with Aubrey. She could tell by the way Chloe straightened her body position that the redhead had been pleased with the performance and suddenly Beca realised the knot in her stomach had loosened.

Around three minutes later the Bellas were now all forced to stand and watch in horror as the opposing bands performed on a stage with musical instruments, singing to the Riff Off category “Zombies”. Chloe’s heart was racing with frustration as she watched Evermoist, Saddle Up, and Young Sparrow break one of the sacred rules of a Riff Off: no instruments.

She heard Aubrey turn to the Bellas, stating that they needed to come up with a song to counteract with and quick, but there was such a merge of songs already being sung by the bands up on the stage that Chloe was struggling to find a song lyric that would fit anything, let alone one that matched the category of “Zombies”

Suddenly Chloe froze, her breath catching in her throat as she heard Beca, stood just in front of her, burst into song. Chloe swallowed loudly, hesitating as she immediately recognised the lyrics that Beca sang out loud and true. From the song ‘Human’ by Cristina Perry. And Chloe turned to look nervously at Fat Amy on her left, who returned the nervous glance, both joining in with the rest of The Bellas as they provided back up for Beca while the opposing bands halted their own playing.

This song wasn’t just any song. It was the song Beca had listened to on a loop after she’d broken up with Jesse. The song she’d cried to over and over for almost a whole day. And Chloe and Fat Amy had been there all the way through.

Beca continued to sing the lyrics with full power and emotion and Chloe felt that emotion too. She noticed Fat Amy had placed her hands on Beca’s arms and Chloe was pleased that she had. They were the only two Bellas who had known exactly how Beca had reacted to the breakup. How hard she’d taken it. How Beca still looked through Jesse’s Facebook profile from time to time just to see how he was doing, only to be bitterly disappointed that he was doing REALLY well, had moved on quickly with a new girl while Beca had barely gained a sniff of a date since the breakup over Skype.

Chloe and Amy had been there to hug her, and listen to her, and share a massive tub of ice cream with her. Chloe had been sure to hold Beca tight that night until the brunette had fallen asleep in her arms, exhausted from all the crying. And it had been all so traumatic for the trio that it had been another way of bringing them closer together.

Chloe felt nervous as she watched the bands up on the stage ready their instruments. She didn’t want Beca to be interrupted, but she knew that was the curse of a Riff Off. Interruption. And sure enough a member a Saddle Up stepped up to the mic with a fiddle and within seconds Beca had been cut off.

The Bellas were left with no choice but to watch in awe at the bands who combined forces to sing a mash-up of songs..


	5. The Dog

Arriving at their first hotel on the tour was memorable enough. Beca had followed Amy up into the mini bus, sitting beside the Australian in the centre of the three-seater row, and it had come as no surprise to her when Chloe had sat the other side of her. It was weirdly this unspoken thing the two women had going on whenever they were together. It was as though they were subconsciously drawn to each other. As if one couldn’t go anywhere without the other.

The short journey over had involved Flo teaching the Bellas handy phrases to say in Spanish. Beca had to admit, even though she hated it when the Bellas got all shrill (particularly when she was tired), she loved how excited Chloe would get whenever she was united with their Bellas. To the point that Beca simply smiled peacefully while she watched the redhead furrow her brow and try to repeat the phrases Flo had been teaching them.

A smile that quickly dropped when she watched Chloe lean towards the front of the mini bus and say loudly, “Hey boys, what do you make of our Spanish?”

Beca knew exactly who her best friend had been directing that comment at. And sure enough, Chicago turned in his passenger seat at the front to glance over his shoulder at no Bella in particular, clearly unsure of who had asked the question, and simply answered positively “Bellissimo Bellas!”

“That’s fucking Italian..” Beca mumbled under her breath, folding her arms while she watched a stupid giddy grin wash over Chloe’s face, the redhead too thrilled that the marine had responded so positively to notice the mistake.

When they arrived at the hotel Beca felt yet another pang of jealousy as she watched Chicago slide the door open and offer his hand to the Bellas as they scrambled out of the vehicle. Chloe was the only one to take it, grinning at the marine who gave her a wink, then turned to Beca to offer his hand to her next. The brunette declined, not even able to look at him, and as if by a natural instinct the woman began to head towards Chloe. To her disappointment though the redhead was too preoccupied with watching Chicago, her smile broadening as she watched Flo scuttle over to her with an equally broad smile.

“He so hansom!” Flo said quietly to Chloe and Beca rolled her eyes as the two of them let out little giggles then began walking away towards the hotel. Beca followed, surprised to find that Amy wasn’t walking alongside her but rather Aubrey was instead.

While Beca and Aubrey had been somewhat mortal enemies when they’d first met, over the years the blonde had slowly grown on her. Maybe it was because they had both matured in some way. Or maybe it was because of all the stories Chloe had told her of how good Aubrey had been to her during their years in college. Or maybe it was because Beca had no choice but to always overheard Chloe’s FaceTime conversations to Aubrey, because she would be laying on the bed in Brooklyn beside Chloe anyway..

They weren’t so close that they’d told each other their life stories, but they shared a common commitment which was being Chloe’s closest two friends. If ever Beca had a problem getting through to Chloe, she would call Aubrey for advice, the blonde having known Chloe for longer, though Beca now overtook her in terms of knowing Chloe the best.

“Chicago. Yay or nay?” Aubrey asked Beca quietly, looking at Chloe who was up ahead of them. Beca had already been looking miserably at the redhead and muttered, “Nay.”

For however much the Bellas said that Chloe and Beca were able to communicate without talking, none of them had picked up on the fact that any time Aubrey and Beca spoke between the two of them it was always about Chloe. Just like it was now. Aubrey wondered if Beca was happy about Chicago and whether she thought he was right for their best friend. Beca’s resounding ‘nay’ was enough of an answer for Aubrey to know that Beca didn’t think he was.

“Oh!” Aubrey squeaked quietly, diverting away from Beca, and the brunette rolled her eyes when she saw the woman wandering over to a dog that was sat with its owners in the hotel courtyard. But Beca found her feet following Aubrey, and the brunette couldn’t help but smile as she approached the little animal.

If Beca had been told seven years ago that one day she would consciously opt to approach a strangers dog and pet it, she would’ve told them to fuck off. But that was the thing about living with and being best friends with Chloe Beale. Beca’s opinion of animals had seemed to change over time. Particularly when Chloe returned home from the vets practice she interned at every day with the oddest pet stories. Nowadays Beca thought of animals as ‘cool’ rather than ridiculous. And she quite liked that..

Beca heard a squeal of delight to her right, and grinned as she sat on the fold-out bed and continued scrolling through Instagram.

“ _Oh my GOD, Beca!! That puppy is the cuuuuutest!!!!!”_

_The brunette turned to look at her best friend, grinning broadly at Chloe while the woman stuck her bottom lip out and showed her the very video Beca had just tagged her in. Chloe was obsessed with puppies. To the point that Beca had even said if they ended up living together one day in an apartment that would let them have pets they could TOTALLY get a puppy. To which another squeal of delight had come from Chloe’s mouth and the redhead had looped their arms together, squeezing them tight and asking if they could move right now. Beca had laughed and said no. Amy had said, from where she was sat on her bed, that the three of them could probably have a puppy right now, and that she knew a guy who had a bunch that he was selling.. Chloe had started to consider it. And again Beca had to firmly say no._

_That had been the first time Beca had thought about her future specifically with Chloe in it. And their puppy. Ever since then Beca had kinda become addicted to tagging Chloe in puppy/dog photos or videos on Instagram or Facebook just to see her reaction. She loved the sound of Chloe’s excitable squeal. How the redhead seemed to melt the second she clasped eyes on them. Beca loved the way Chloe’s smile shone out at the screen then over at her, as though it were a silent ‘Thank You’ for exposing her to a new set of photos or videos._

_“Look at hiiiiim and his tiny diddy paws!” Chloe said in the tone she saved exclusively for cooing over animals and babies. It had once made Beca cringe. Now it was a tone she craved. That made her secretly fall harder for her best friend._

The Bellas all stood out in the courtyard of the hotel, gathered around the door that would lead into the lobby. Chicago excused himself while he made his way between the group of women, saying something about sorting their rooms out for them. No sooner had he appeared he was gone, wandering up to the reception desk. Beca watched on as Chloe stared at him through the window of the door, that goofy grin still on her face, and the knot of jealousy in Beca’s stomach tightened once again. She was so sick of feeling like this.

Jessica & Ashley were busy pouring over a ‘Guide to Spain’ book, Aubrey mentioned that she was going to see if there were any brochures about local sites to visit. Emily and Lily followed the blonde. And Beca took this opportunity to try to detract Chloe from Chicago, knowing the perfect hook to grab her attention.

“Hey, Chlo.” Beca said, nudging the redhead’s elbow. Chloe turned to look at her, a dazed expression on her face as though she’d completely zoned out while watching the marine. “There’s a cute dog over there if you wanna go see it?”

To Beca’s delight she saw her best friend’s face light up, her bright blue eyes shining at her as a smile peeled over her face, and Beca felt somewhat proud that she’d been the one to put it there.

“Where??” Chloe asked excitably, immediately grabbing Beca’s arm. And the brunette simply turned to look over her shoulder at the dog she had petted moments ago with Aubrey still remained sat with its owners in the courtyard. Chloe didn’t wait for Beca to suggest that they go over and say hello to it, nor did she ask Beca if she even wanted to go over there. Instead she dragged Beca across the courtyard, making a beeline for the poor unsuspecting dog. Beca let out a small chuckle of delight at how excited Chloe was over this small ball of fluff.

True to form, Chloe began cooing at the dog, crouching down to pet it.

“Oh Beca he’s so soooooft!” Chloe said in the tone she saved when around dogs or young children, “Aren’t you a softie!!” Chloe said affectionately to the dog as she scratched it behind the ears. Beca looked on with smile, raising her eyebrows at the dogs owners, almost apologising for her best friend’s behaviour. A smile that waivered when she heard a chuckle followed by a “Yeah, Beca’s one short softie that’s for sure” and the brunette realised that Fat Amy, CR, and Flo had joined them, all smiling knowingly at Beca.

It was no secret amongst the Bellas that Beca & Chloe acted even more like a married couple now than they had done back in college. And that was saying something! As a result the Bellas took every opportunity possible to subtly tease them about it. Beca more than Chloe because Beca rose to the bait far more than Chloe, who usually just rolled her eyes with a light giggle.

“I wonder if our rooms are ready yet?” Beca asked, trying to change the conversation quickly and divert any potential teasing.

To her surprise, Chloe shot up, clearing her throat, “Um, why don’t I go and find out?”

But it was more of a rhetorical question, and Beca had no choice but to watch Chloe skip away from them and the dog and over to the doors that would lead her into the hotel lobby. That would lead her to Chicago. Beca swallowed loudly as she watched her best friend – her crush – pause, take a deep breath probably to compose herself, then walk into the lobby, the door closing behind her.

Beca found herself caught in some sort of daze as she slowly lumbered over to the door but instead of going inside she waited near Jessica and Ashley, as though she were standing with them. But she was paying absolutely no attention to what they were saying because at that very moment she watched as Chloe sauntered up to the marine, mumbling something while trying to find a comfortable position to lean against the reception desk.

Beca felt that jealous knot in her stomach tighten so much she felt sick. Because there was this look on Chloe’s face that she was sure she’d never seen before. And it was due to this realisation that it suddenly hit her. Chloe really had fallen for this guy. And it broke Beca’s heart.

Aubrey, meanwhile, turned from the conversation she’d been having with Emily to see that Chloe was staring at Chicago in a way she hadn’t seen the redhead stare at anyone in years. Not since..well not since Beca’s freshman year, when the woman had been absolutely besotted with the grumpy alt-girl that Aubrey had to admit was now one of their closest friends. She furrowed her brow thoughtfully as Chloe suddenly began babbling at a hundred miles an hour about animals and Aubrey sensed an air of amusement coming from the marine who politely listened.

The blonde glanced out the door for a moment and her heart lurched as she saw Beca, looking into the lobby from outside, with an expression on her face as though she were about to burst into tears. Beca had never said it out loud, but Aubrey had seen it. Hell, all the Bellas had seen it but Chloe herself. Beca had a huge crush on Chloe. And it had been until just now that Aubrey’d assumed that Chloe had a huge crush on Beca too.

Aubrey looked down at the brochure in her hands to see if there might be some place they could go where the two might be able to talk, but suddenly Chloe’s voice piped up.

“Hey, girls! We have separate rooms! We don’t have to sleep on top of each other any more!”

 


	6. The Chocolates

Chloe happily approached the door of the Spanish hotel room that would be hers for the night. She looked to her left while she placed her key in the lock and twisted, watching as Beca approached her own hotel room next to hers. There was never any question that they would have the rooms next to each other, though it was more of a subconscious decision made by the two best friends than something that had been declared.

The redhead pulled her room door closed, and let out a tired sigh. It had been a long flight over from NYC, and felt like ages since she’d woken in the little studio apartment she shared with Beca and Fat Amy in Brooklyn.   
Chloe looked around the room, slowly moving around it, tracing her fingertips across the surface of one of the low cabinets by the door, smiling gently at the two hand-towels that had been fashioned into facing swans, a heart showing between their necks.

She approached her suitcase that had been brought up by one of the hotel staff before the Bellas had made their way up to their respective rooms, and tugged it up onto the large double bed at the end of the room. Chloe pulled her long red coat off, moving over to a coat stand by the door, then turned to look back at the bed again. She bit her bottom lip. It was going to be strange not sharing a bed with anyone tonight. She’d spent the past two years sharing a bed with her best friend. With Beca.

The redhead turned thoughtfully to look at the wall that separated her hotel room from Beca’s. Neither of them had had to entertain the idea of sleeping alone since moving to Brooklyn a couple of years ago. Chloe wasn’t overly sure if she’d even be able to sleep properly without Beca beside her, especially because the brunette seemed to like tucking into a small ball during the night and if Chloe didn’t wrap her arms around the petite woman early enough she’d end up with Beca’s forehead digging into her back..

Suddenly Chloe’s eyes spied what looked like a door that would lead to a walk-in wardrobe. But if she knew the layout of the room well enough she could tell that there was no way it could be a wardrobe. The redhead slowly walked towards the door, reaching out, and turning the handle. She opened it up and peered inside but all she could see was half a foot of space before another door. Chloe took a deep breath then stepped forward, reaching out and trying the handle of the other door. It turned.

Beca was laid on the large double bed of her hotel room and jumped as she heard the door beside her open. She turned to see the door she’d originally assumed was a walk-in wardrobe turn out to be a door that connected her hotel room to Chloe’s. She raised her eyebrows as a greeting to her best friend who stepped into her room with a light giggle.

“Well I suppose this is the next best thing to sharing a bed?” Chloe said optimistically, and Beca automatically scootched across her bed slightly to make room for the redhead who wandered over and clambered onto the bedding. They lay, side-by-side, their eyes closed as they let out small sighs, relieved to no longer be travelling. Beca tried her hardest not to feel too overwhelmed with emotion, immediately remembering how jealous she’d felt seeing Chloe chatting to Chicago several minutes earlier. Because at the end of the day, she was the one currently laying by Chloe’s side on her bed, not Chicago.

“Have you texted your Mom to let her know we’ve arrived safe?” Beca mumbled sleepily, knowing full well that Mrs Beale would be anxiously checking her phone for some sort of update from her youngest daughter. Beca felt Chloe raise her hand to rub her nose, something she knew her best friend did when she was tired.

“Ohh..no I haven’t..” Chloe said quietly, letting out a little sigh while she felt her pants pocket for her phone. But it wasn’t there. “Ugh, I left my phone in my coat pocket..”

The redhead sat up on the bed, swinging her legs around to the side and standing up. Beca took hold of her own phone, “I can text her if you want?” This wasn’t the first time she’d texted Chloe’s parents. In fact she texted them quite often, particularly when Mr & Mrs Beale didn’t believe their daughter when she told them she was okay.

But Chloe shook her head while she wandered through to her hotel room via their connecting doors, “No it’s okay, I’ll text her now.”

Beca knew what her best friend was like. She knew she couldn’t be without her phone for more than five minutes. In fact the only time Chloe was happy to be away from her phone was if they had to do a Bellas performance. So Beca put her phone back in her pants pocket, awaiting Chloe’s return.

Suddenly she heard doors opening along the corridor outside. The brunette rolled off her bed and over to her hotel door, just as she heard Chloe opening her own hotel door. Beca opened the door and stuck her head out, looking down the corridor to see that her fellow Bellas had all done the same. She watched as Chloe pointed to Aubrey, whose hotel room was opposite hers, and suddenly Jessica and Ashley began squealing, their arms full of snacks as they ran into Aubrey’s room closely followed by the rest of The Bellas. Beca brought up the rear, her fingers in her ears as she grumbled about how loud they were. She hated having jet lag..

Within minutes the Bellas were all bundled on Aubrey’s bed, sharing snacks and chatting away. This was their thing. No matter where they all went together they always gathered in Aubrey’s room. She was the eldest Bella. And as such, it was just a given that all the girls would gather at hers. Plus Aubrey always had stacks of spare clothes, blankets, and cosmetics – hence why she always travelled with two suitcases.

Beca sat beside Chloe, a box of chocolates between them, the list of chocolates in Beca’s hand.

“Ooh what about that one?” Chloe asked her eagerly, pointing down at one of the chocolates but Beca shook her head, nudging her finger from the chocolate with her own as she responded, “No that’s marzipan, you wont like that..”

Chloe had scrunched her nose up with a quiet “Ew no”. Because it was true, Chloe hated marzipan. In fact it was one of the first things Beca had learnt about Chloe last year when they’d been given a box of chocolates as a joint Christmas present from one of their neighbours.

“Oh how about that one?” Beca suggested pointing at a chocolate closer to Chloe that the redhead hadn’t pointed at yet, “Orange chocolate? Your favourite..”

And Chloe didn’t need to be told twice, immediately reaching for it and biting into it. Beca smiled as she watched her best friend let out a low “mmm” while peering at the centre of the chocolate. That was another thing she knew about her best friend better than anyone else. Chloe had this thing whereby she couldn’t ever put a whole chocolate in her mouth. She always had to bite into it and peer at its contents. Something that Beca had found ridiculous on many an occasion. But that was just Chloe, and Beca wouldn’t want to change her for the world.


	7. The Music Exec

Young Sparrow strutted their stuff as the opening act of the first night of the USO tour. Chloe stood side-of stage, dressed in the red and white striped halter-neck top and tight pants that all the Bellas were wearing for their first performance. But they were the only group performing tonight who were doing so without instruments. And even though it wasn’t exactly ideal, Chloe was just over the moon to be performing with her best friends again.

On her left stood Aubrey. On her right stood Emily. And she could sense the nerves from both of them. Aubrey had already revealed to Chloe that she needed this performance to be amazing, just in case her father was watching. But Chloe wasn’t worried. They were going to be aca-awesome.

Chloe nodded her head to the beat of Young Sparrow’s song, “They’re so…” she attempted to come up with a word best fitted for duo on stage, “…dope.” She’d never said the word ‘dope’ in her life and honestly didn’t think it suited her. She’d be sure never to use it again.

As the performance came to an end, Chloe turned to her left then to her right and suddenly realised why she felt so odd. Beca wasn’t here. And it wasn’t like she needed Beca to be here for her to be happy. Well..not exactly. Just..it felt odd being at a Bellas event without Beca with her. The brunette had always been around when they’d had a Bellas performance.

“I-I’m just going to find the others..” Chloe said quietly to Aubrey and Emily, but neither woman acknowledged the comment, nor did they watch as she left the stage side, both too nervous as they watched Saddle Up begin to walk onto the stage.

Chloe began wandering towards the make-up area backstage. This wasn’t the first time she’d looked for Beca. In fact, she’d spent most of her college years looking for her best friend when they were at parties or social gatherings. Usually subconsciously. But still she’d looked. All because she’d had the hugest crush on Beca back then. A crush that she realised had developed into love once they’d graduated. Funnily enough, sharing a fold-out bed for two years hadn’t really helped matters, Chloe having spent all too many mornings waking up and watching Beca while the brunette slept peacefully beside her, longing to find the confidence to one day tell her best friend exactly how in love she was with her. But that day hadn’t come yet.

Suddenly Chloe rounded a corner and froze on the spot. Her heart jumped into her throat, tears pricking her eyes the moment they spotted Beca up ahead by the mirrors. Chloe felt her hands go numb as she watched, mouth open slightly in shock, while she watched some guy flirting with her best friend. Beca was smiling at him, laughing awkwardly as he said something to her. 

Chloe swallowed loudly as she looked over at the man. He looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. A good head of brown hair that had been styled well, and a short beard. There was something about him that reminded Chloe of Jesse, Beca’s ex-boyfriend, and it was this knowledge that hit the redhead the hardest. Because it meant that Beca had a type. This type. The Jesse type. And Chloe was far from a Jesse type. 

Chloe brought her palms to her eyes, dabbing the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks and smudge her makeup. As she sniffed she watched while the man smiled charmingly over at Cynthia-Rose and Flo, who were both near Beca, grinning at the interaction between the brunette and the mysterious new man. The stranger presumably said goodbye to them before walking off, but Chloe found that her breath had caught in her lungs. Because she saw the expression on her best friend’s face, and felt certain she’d heard Beca mention to their friends something about eye contact. 

Chloe felt heartbroken as she identified a smile on Beca’s face, too upset to entertain the notion that her best friend had actually felt highly uncomfortable with the attention she’d just received from the strange man.

Beca let out a chuckle as she said to Cynthia-Rose and Flo, “That was so much eye contact!” And she looked over her shoulder to watch ‘Theo’ walking away. She’d never felt more uncomfortable in her life, and she’d had Chloe barge into her shower in her freshman year! He’d been so forward and had had a smile on his face that had reminded Beca of a smarmy teen boy who was trying to woo a girl in his high school. It had made Beca feel awkward, not charmed. And as such, she’d be really happy if she never had to see him again (though the chances were slim now that she knew he was part of DJ Khalid’s label).

To her relief she heard her best friend calling out to them in her ever-bubbly voice, “Hey guys?” Chloe asked, and the three Bellas looked over at the redhead who approached them with an overly broad beaming smile, “You almost ready? Saddle Up are on, then it’s Evermoist, then we’ll be up.”

Beca hesitated for a moment, noticing how hard Chloe was trying to keep each of her words sounding positive, and she wondered why the redhead wasn’t looking at her. But if it had been a concern on Beca’s mind then it had fallen to the back, because in a matter of moments Jessica & Ashley had turned up, Cynthia-Rose and Flo had finished preparing their hair for the performance, and Chloe led the Bellas up to the stage to join Aubrey and Emily.

Chloe made a note in her mind to ask Beca who that guy had been.

Beca made a note in her mind to tell Chloe about the hilariously awkward encounter.


	8. The Casino

“If it’s easier I could just say slutty.” Fat Amy offered, staring around at the confused expressions of the Bellas sat around her, wondering what she’d meant when she’d said ‘tarted up’.

“Let’s get slutty.” Beca said to Chloe with a shrug, the redhead sat beside her on Aubrey’s bed, and she watched as her best friend confirmed what she said with a nod, replying with an equally strong, “Let’s get slutty!”

Beca slid off the bed and headed to one of Aubrey’s suitcases, the one they all knew contained all manner of shoes and outfits that they could all share. Chloe, meanwhile, slid to the other side of the bed and perched on the edge, grabbing Aubrey’s hairbrush and running it quickly through her red hair.

“Oh don’t forget you brought that jumpsuit!” Chloe said to Beca over the hubble of noise that was coming from their best friends, and although all of the Bellas hadn’t heard her voice, Beca’s hearing seemed to be perfectly tuned to Chloe’s tone. The brunette raised her head and turned to look at Chloe who was now stood by the bed, knowing full well her best friend had been talking to her. So Beca handed Jessica (or Ashley?) a pair of silver glittery heels and made her way out of Aubrey’s hotel room.

As she entered her own hotel room to search through her suitcase, she didn’t close the door behind her, knowing her best friend well enough to know that Chloe would probably follow her. And follow her she did, the redhead closing the hotel door behind her before trundling through to her own hotel room via their connecting doors that had remained open since they’d first got there that afternoon.

Chloe unzipped her suitcase, peeling through the layers of neatly folded clothes within it before she found the sparkly turquoise dress she’d been searching for. As she pulled her strapless bra and some sexy underwear out of her suitcase, a thought crossed her mind. A burning question actually. And deciding that now would be as best a time as any to ask it, the redhead took a deep breath before calling out to her best friend, “Hey, who was that guy you were talking to earlier?”

There was a pause, and Chloe froze, straining her ears for Beca’s answer. But it was an anticlimactic answer that rang out to her, Beca sounding somewhat confused,

“Which guy?”

“You know..” Chloe said as she scooped up her clothes and trundled through into Beca’s hotel room, “the guy who was talking to you backstage, down by the makeup area.”

She noticed Beca had scrunched her nose up as if trying to remember, and Chloe felt a knot of jealousy tighten in her stomach. She knew Beca had been talking to him. That she’d even been smiling at him. So why was she pretending as though she hadn’t been talking to someone? “The tall one with the good head of hair and a short beard? Smiled a lot?” ‘Looked like Jesse’, Chloe almost wanted to add. If she’d had a drink or two she probably would have..

The thing was, Beca had honestly completely forgotten about that dude, whatever his name had been, all until now. And her face suddenly opened up.

“Oh!! Yeah the…the guy!” Beca turned back to her suitcase, finally finding the jump suit that Chloe had reminded her about, and pulled it out in the hope that it wasn’t creased. It wasn’t. “I dunno, he was just some music exec dude with DJ Khalid’s label..” Beca said in a distracted tone, having placed the outfit on the bed to the right of her suitcase, and was now rifling through her packed clothes for an appropriate pair of lingerie and some boob tape.

“Oh..” Chloe said quietly, swallowing loudly. God he was to do with the music industry?? A perfect fit for Beca. She and that guy had so much in common. Chloe was nothing to do with the music industry. Chloe was…nothing…

“You okay there Chlo?” Beca asked with a curious look on her face and Chloe snapped out of her thoughts, a smile spreading on her face while she placed her clothes at the bottom of Beca’s hotel bed.

“Yeah of course! I was…just wondering how to wear my hair tonight.”

She watched as Beca shrugged, pulling her pyjama top off over her head, folding it, then sliding it under her pillow. “Your hair looks great all the time dude.”

Chloe tried her hardest not to stare at how good Beca looked without a bra or top on, so immediately began taking her own top off, figuring that it was always less awkward when they were getting dressed at the same time. That was the thing about sharing a studio apartment for so long – there was absolutely no privacy. So Beca and Chloe had seen each other naked plenty of times, when one or both of them were getting dressed for work in the mornings or ready for bed at night. It was so normal now that neither of them batted an eyelid if they stood chatting to one another casually about something, butt-naked, while getting their clothes ready to change into.

“I think I’m gonna wear it up…” Chloe said, wandering over to the long mirror in the corner of Beca’s hotel room, “because…” She pulled her hair up, looking at her reflection thoughtfully, not noticing the way Beca was now stood in nothing but the fresh panties she’d just put on, watching Chloe affectionately in the reflection of the mirror, “it looks good up..right?”

Beca watched as Chloe turned on the spot, topless while holding her red hair up, and if this was the first time she’d seen her crush topless she probably would’ve immediately turned away in embarrassment. But this wasn’t the first time, so the brunette simply shrugged, “Well yeah, I think it looks good up..” and Beca felt happy when she watched a satisfied smile wash over her best friend’s face.

“Great!” Chloe replied, wandering back over to the bed to get out of her pyjama bottoms and put on some panties..

-

The Bellas strode excitably up to the front of the casino, being led by Beca and Chloe who, as usual, gravitated towards one another while they were all out and about together. As they all reached the top of a tall carpeted staircase they looked around, admiring their surroundings, and keeping their beady eyes out for DJ Khalid. The man they needed to prove to that they weren’t as terrible performers as people may have thought during their earlier performance.

“Okay ladies,” Aubrey said with an air of authority, turning to face the group, “I think we should split up. Divide and conquer. You ready?” The Bellas all nodded eagerly. “Let’s rock it.”

The women all split off in pairs, Beca immediately walking off in one direction with purpose, and it was no surprise to anyone that Chloe walked with her. The two were inseparable. They wandered up another set of stairs together, looking around at the guests milling about the casino. They both paused at the end of one of the walkways, looking left then right. And when Beca decided it was probably best that they took a left, she looked at Chloe. The redhead didn’t need any words to fall from her best friend’s mouth, somehow knowing exactly what Beca wanted to say, and began turning left before the woman even had to open her mouth.

They continued down the carpeted corridor then out into another section of the casino. Chloe’s heart leapt into her throat as up ahead she spied that guy Beca had been talking earlier that day. She couldn’t let Beca see him. She couldn’t let them have an opportunity to talk. For Beca to have the opportunity to get to know him. For Beca to forget her..

“There’s that guy!” Chloe exclaimed quietly, “Hide!” And before she knew what she was doing, Chloe turned to her best friend and shoved her over to a pillar beside them, hiding from view behind an indoor plant.

Beca landed backwards against the pillar, trying to push aside some leaves of the plant to follow Chloe’s gaze down the casino, trying to work out what was going on, “Why are we hiding??”

Suddenly she realised that Chloe hadn’t only pushed her back against a pillar, but that she’d done so by pushing against her boobs. And what was more, the redhead still hadn’t let go of them.

“I dunno!” Chloe replied as she peered around the plant, hoping that music exec guy hadn’t spotted Beca yet. But he didn’t appear to be looking their way, which was a relief.

Chloe turned to look at Beca but to her surprise she saw that her best friend was looking down at her hands. Her hands that were currently on Beca’s boobs. Chloe swallowed loudly, furrowing her brow slightly while she brought her head back to get a better view of the boobs in front of her. She pushed them up and gave them a short squeeze, before pressing them together to form Beca’s cleavage.

“Dude, what…” Beca was gobsmacked, her arms out by her sides while she watched her best friend - her crush – admiring the way her boobs felt in her hands. She was confused. Chloe had seen her boobs a million times before. Sure, she’d never felt them. But she’d seen them. Couldn’t she have imagined how they’d felt? “..what is this about?”

But just as Chloe opened her mouth to answer, a voice sounded from behind the redhead, “Wwwwhat are you guys doing?”

Chloe snapped out of the weird haze she’d found herself in, and turned on the spot with a quiet gasp, releasing Beca’s boobs. Beca peered around Chloe’s body, her heart racing. She and Chloe were close, The Bellas knew that, but it was something else for them to be caught in an uncompromising position.

“Nothing!” Beca and Chloe both said in unison, something that occurred far more regularly than they realised. They could probably give Jessica and Ashley a run for their money when it came to saying things at the same time.

Aubrey seemed unconvinced, which was no wonder considering Chloe had been fondling Beca’s breasts and Beca hadn’t seemed to be minding. The brunette stepped past her best friend, nudging her hand out of the way of her body. Chloe stepped backwards into Beca’s spot, beginning to peer through the leaves once again.

Luckily for Beca and Chloe, the Bellas seemed more wrapped up in their mission to find DJ Khalid than to interrogate the two women as to why they were fondling one another against a pillar, behind a plant, in the casino.

“Ain’t that Mr eye-contact?” Cynthia-Rose asked, looking intently down the casino towards the guy that Beca had been speaking to before their performance earlier. The Bellas all followed CR’s line of sight.

“He knows Khalid right? We should follow him.” Emily said directly, and Beca tapped her nose at the youngest Bella, relieved that none of her friends were going to hang onto this Chloe business, but nervous about having to approach the weird guy from earlier that day.

“Okay Legacy, come on.” Beca said with some forced confidence, and she led the Bellas, Chloe included, towards the elevator doors that the music exec had disappeared behind.


	9. The Mixing Desk

The Bellas had arrived on the floor that ‘Mr Eye Contact’ had gone up to. It turned out that floor was DJ Khalid’s suite. And the guy that they had followed up there had been waiting for them. Or..more specifically Beca, who had felt somewhat unnerved when the man had said that he’d seen her hiding behind a plant downstairs. When he offered them a tour of the suite, Beca glanced to her left, relieved that Chloe was beside her at least. The guy was weird, but being with the Bellas meant that it was certainly less intimidating than it being just her and him, one-on-one.

Beca strolled alongside Chloe, glancing at some of the furnishings and ornaments around the busy suite. For a fleeting moment she paid some attention to the guests who were enjoying the party, relieved that Amy had actually suggested something good. That ‘getting slutty’ had been the best idea for them. 

She could feel Chloe’s arm grazing hers from time to time as they followed some of the other Bellas who were following Khalid’s guy, and just the knowledge that Chloe was still walking by her side filled Beca with some sort of comfort.

This plan would work. Things would go well. And once they’d proven to DJ Khalid that The Bellas were worthy contenders for the stupid little competition he was running, they could go back to their hotel, and Beca could finally get some sleep. And if Chloe happened to fall asleep in her bed with her (which Beca was absolutely certain she’d be suggesting to her best friend on the way back) then so be it. After all, it would be weird having that massive bed to herself when she’d been so used to sharing a smaller crappier bed with the redhead for over 2 years. Who would she warm her freezing feet up on?

“Oh, Sunburst here is Khalid’s juiceologist.” The guy announced enthusiastically as the Bellas who had been following him stopped in front of a bar. Beca looked over at the ‘juiceologist’, trying her hardest not to laugh at how ridiculous the title of ‘juiceologist’ was, let alone that it was an actual thing. Some people had too much money..

Chloe, meanwhile, stood by Beca’s side, immediately feeling inferior to her surroundings. Because this guy who was showing them around was a music exec. He was from the world that Beca knew so well. A world that Chloe didn’t know as well. After all, what the hell kind of world had a ‘juiceologist’?! What the hell even WAS a ‘juiceologist’? And it made Chloe somewhat terrified that this guy was about to take her best friend away from her because Beca would feel so much more comfortable with him, and the redhead would have no way of keeping up.

“Ah! Theo! Pardon my zesting..” the man behind the bar said to the guy, before turning to Flo, offering her a glass of some concoction, “would you like a beetjuice? Your glands look frustrated.”

“In my country, beetjuice was reserved for the king.” Flo said seriously, and nobody dared tell her otherwise. 

“DJ Khalid is the king of the beets…” Theo started, looking over at Beca for her reaction, half hoping she’d laugh. But Beca wasn’t laughing in the slightest. In fact, her face fell even further as the man tried to explain the joke, “you know like the…beat king?-”

Chloe found herself leaning the outside of her arm slightly against the outside of Beca’s, her cool skin on hers while they stood side by side. Because if they hadn’t been on a mission to try to get into this guy’s good books, they would’ve absolutely looked at one another by now and laughed together at how terrible the pun was. Chloe hoped that Beca wouldn’t laugh to be polite. But this was her best friend - Chloe knew her better than Beca probably knew herself. So it came as no surprise to the redhead when Beca said in a rather sympathetic tone, “Oh honey that was…we didn’t like that at all.”

“I know..” the man admitted sheepishly.

“Um can you explain this…uh…terrifying situation?” Beca asked politely, pointing behind Theo.

“What my..uh..the face?” Theo said in a confused tone, pointing to his face, but Beca was busy shaking her head.

“No not your face, um, the thing behind you?” 

“Oh the Apiary?” The man stepped to the side, motioning to the collection of bees contained behind him. Chloe had been so focussed on how the man had been looking at Beca that she hadn’t even realised there was a bee hive behind him. She swallowed loudly. She loved all animals. But she was terrified of bees. So naturally she shuffled evermore closer to Beca. “Yeah, no this is a portable bee hive that Sunburst uses to harvest natural honey.”

“That doesn’t seem like a disaster waiting to happen..” Beca said with a quiet, nervous, sarcastic mutter, and Chloe felt her best friend hook her little pinky over her index finger, as some sort of unspoken solidarity against the bees – Beca knowing full well that of all the creatures her animal loving best friend was scared of, bees were top of Chloe’s list.

“Ooh Beca! I gotta show you something. You’re gonna love this.” Chloe felt her heart sink as she heard this Theo guy speak to her specifically. But it was a sadness short-lived when she glanced at Beca who glanced back at her, the brunette releasing Chloe’s finger but looking at her as if to say “Do we go with him??” and Chloe gave her best friend a little shrug. After all, what harm could come to them if they were together?

“Ssssure.” Beca said slowly, noting the nod of approval from Chloe. Not that she needed permission or anything from her best friend. But she certainly needed her if she were to make it through this evening without being awkwardly hit on by this weird dude. So Beca turned back to Theo with a slightly more confident, “Yeah.”

“I’ll bring her right back-“ Theo said to Chloe as the redhead made to follow Beca. She hesitated, looking from the man to her best friend – her crush – and saw Beca look back at her, clearly as surprised as she was that he was specifically choosing Beca and not both of them. They did everything together. That was their jam. If you got Beca you more than often got Chloe and vice-versa. But this guy wasn’t to know that, and unfortunately for the two women, they weren’t exactly in a position to say no. After all, he’d asked so nicely..

So despite Chloe’s stomach twisting with jealousy for the second time that day, she merely shrugged, forcing a smile onto her face, “Oh..yeah..just her..”

“-just borrow her for a second.” Theo added, holding his hand out to Chloe as if to reassure her that Beca would be back soon. 

“Whatever..” Chloe added as casually as possible, but she felt tears begin to prick her eyes while she watched Theo begin to lead Beca away to some nook to the side of the suite. She couldn’t understand what was driving her, but she found her feet slowly following them, wondering what on Earth the strange man might want to ‘show’ Beca. Her Beca. No.. _not_ her Beca. 

Chloe screwed her face up in confusion. She had to stop being so jealous. This guy was just a random guy. Some random guy that they’d literally just met. And yeah, so what if he looked at Beca as though she was the most beautiful woman in the world? She was! At least to Chloe she was. And this..Theo guy. But Chloe had nothing to be worried about, right? Because she and Beca had known each other for seven years! They’d been best friends during almost all of that time too. So technically this Theo guy had nothing on Chloe..

“Ooh is that an AKGC24?” Chloe heard Beca say in a tempted voice and the redhead peered behind a pulled back drape, looking into the cosy space her best friend had entered. And there she watched Theo and Beca approach an old recording mic and mixing deck. 

“Yes it certainly is. Incredibly rare..” she heard Theo add enthusiastically. And that was when Chloe felt her heart sink. She felt sick. Because of _course_ he would have something that Chloe could never give Beca. The coolest mixing desk. One that Chloe thought she heard him mention had been owned by Beyoncé. Frikking _Beyoncé_! How was she ever going to compete with that?

Chloe turned on the spot, her heart racing, tears pricking her eyes. She needed a drink, and fast! So with one final glance over her shoulder at her best friend, who was jumping at the chance to try out the deck, Chloe strode over to the cocktail bar to join Flo in getting a drink.


	10. The Baby

Chloe lay tucked on her left side, looking ahead of her, her eyes having adjusted quickly to the early morning light that filtered through the closed blinds of the Spanish hotel room. She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully, not daring to move her arm that was currently trapped underneath the head of her best friend. Beca, meanwhile, lay fast asleep. Her arm lolled lazily around Chloe’s waist under the bedcovers of the brunette’s hotel bed, her other arm tucked between their chests. This was often the position they woke up in. But it was never the morning after such a hectic day.

Last night had been eventful. They’d been at DJ Khalid’s suite with the rest of The Bellas. Beca had been separated from Chloe, thanks to that douschebag ‘Theo’ or whatever his name was. And somehow, within twenty minutes, that terrifying bee hive in the suite that Beca had identified was a disaster waiting to happen, had actually been knocked over. Bees had been sent flying around the suite. The drapes by the windows had been set on fire. And all Chloe could remember feeling was two things: panic as the bees had begun attacking her, and relief when she’d felt someone grab her hand and drag her as hard as possible out of the suite, down the fire escape, and out onto the casino’s courtyard.

Chloe stared at Beca as the woman lay peacefully, tucked into her body. She could feel the way her best friend’s body rose and fell gently with every deep breath she took. And the redhead let out a small smile.

Beca had saved her last night. Chloe hadn’t had the chance to process it at the time, but now she lay in the peaceful room she could remember everything. The way Beca had grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the casino suite. Yelling at her to keep running. Yelling at her to not let go of her hand. And Chloe hadn’t. She couldn’t. It wasn’t until they’d escaped the casino that they realised the rest of The Bellas had followed them. And they all huddled together as Aubrey did a head count, panicking at first that Amy wasn’t with them, but then sighing with relief when the Australian, in true form, swanned up to them wondering what all the fuss was about.

They’d all returned to the hotel, tired and bee-stung. Ashley had even fallen through a glass table! Though miraculously she was okay. Chloe’s eyes drifted to Beca’s pyjama-clad shoulder, knowing full well that the brunette had a corker of a bee sting under there. She remembered having to ‘suck the sting out’ before they went to bed. Or at least she’d tried to.

Chloe continued to chew her bottom lip. She had no idea why Beca had suggested she do that, but Chloe hadn’t exactly hesitated. In fact, the second the two best friends had closed Beca’s hotel door behind them, Chloe had brought the sting to Beca’s attention, and Beca had winced when she touched it, then shrugged and said, “You could try sucking the sting out?”

And so for the next ten minutes they stood in Beca’s ensuite, Chloe sucking hard on Beca’s bee sting then spitting into the sink. Over and over. And while to many that would seem like an odd thing for even the closest of friends to do, it didn’t bother Beca or Chloe in the slightest. Chloe joked she’d got stung on her butt, but quickly shook her head to indicate she was joking because Beca had raised her eyebrows at what this would be insinuating. Then they laughed. Got into their pyjamas. Then went to bed, curling up in each other’s arms as they did every night.

Chloe held her breath as she watched Beca stir in her sleep, letting out a yawn and rubbing her eyes before sighing heavily.

“Morning” Chloe whispered, and she heard Beca mumble a quiet “Morning” back, before letting out another sigh and beginning to fall back off to sleep again.

“I need to pee..” Chloe whispered guiltily.

“You know where the bathroom is Chlo..” Beca mumbled, her eyes still closed, the jet lag clearly having hit her the hardest.

“Can I have my arm back then?” Chloe asked sweetly, a small giggle falling out of her mouth as Beca tucked herself closer into Chloe’s body, her legs gripping her best friend’s left leg tightly.

“Nope. It’s mine forever. You can’t leave this bed.” Beca mumbled slowly.

“Oh no..” Chloe said with a soft smile, loving it when her best friend was drowsy and clingy. This was a side of Beca Mitchell that the world didn’t know about. And Chloe loved it!

“Fraid so. You’ll have to lay here with me until further notice..” Beca croaked, her eyes remaining shut.

“Gosh, I guess that means I’m gonna have to pee the bed then..”

“I guess so..”

There was a pause as the two best friends lay quietly in Beca’s hotel bed, the sound of footsteps rumbling in the corridor outside as hotel guests began going downstairs for breakfast.

Beca found herself drifting off to sleep again. She hadn’t felt this tired since they’d returned from Worlds at the end of college and her body clock had been screwed up. Okay so curling up in bed with Chloe when the two had separate beds totally didn’t help with the raging crush she still had on her best friend..but right now Beca was so sleepy and so comfortable that she really didn’t care. She always slept so well when Chloe was here.

“Right Babe, I really do have to go pee..” Chloe said affectionately, tugging her arm from underneath her best friend’s head, causing the brunette to let out a whiney moan. Chloe scrambled from under the bed covers with a giggle, letting out a tut when Beca tried to grab her arm to get her to stay, “I’ll be back in a minute!” she said with another giggle, clambering over Beca’s body then darting over to the ensuite to go pee.

“I’ll be timing you!” Beca called out with a grumble, pulling the bed covers back over her body and letting out a loud sigh while she closed her eyes.

——

Within the hour The Bellas had let themselves into Chloe’s hotel room, had been surprised that NOTHING of Chloe’s was in there, including Chloe herself, then had all crammed through the connecting door into Beca’s hotel room. They’d all laughed when Beca had said that neither of them could sleep without the other. And Beca had been surprised, because she hadn’t actually been joking…

——

Another hour later and The Bellas had all been sat outside the Spanish hotel. Their suitcases repacked. Their bellies a little fuller. But all were still suffering from their jet lag and the new reputation they had of setting casinos on fire…

Bickering had occurred between Fat Amy and Emily but when Stacie had FaceTime’d Chloe, the redhead having always been all of the girls key contact during college, the Bellas had all huddled around Chloe’s phone to say hi to her. The brunette had introduced them to her newborn baby, ‘Bella’, and the women had all agreed it was a very adorable name.

It was at that moment The Bellas had all agreed that they would stop bickering with one another and just enjoy this tour for what it was. Their final batch of performances as a group. And while it was a bittersweet moment, it was turned far more bitter for Beca, when a cheery voice had rang out, “Bellas!”

Beca had turned on the spot with the rest of her friends, and her stomach had knotted with jealousy when her eyes spotted Chicago coming to a halt nearby to them, a big grin on his face. The knot tightened when she heard Chloe let out a small delighted gasp beside her.

Italy. They were off to Italy. And then three more locations. That was four total locations in four days. That meant four days of Chicago.

And Beca wasn’t happy about that in the slightest..


	11. The Tour

4 countries in 4 days. Chicago wasn’t lying.

And while The Bellas were loving the shotgun visits they had to different cities in Europe, it didn’t half tire them out.

The final flight to France had been short and sweet. “Just like Beca”, Fat Amy had joked in response to Emily’s comment about their flight. And The Bellas had laughed and turned to the part of the plane where their ex-Captain’s were sat. They grinned at Beca who looked up from her phone, her headphones over her ears, and saw their teasing expressions. She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help the small smile as she looked back down at her phone. Because beside her, leaning her head against her right shoulder, was Chloe, having a quick power nap to conserve some energy for their performance at another army base this evening. 

Beca loved that she and Chloe were the closest of friends that the redhead need never ask if she could do it. She just would. But what Beca loved most was that Chloe always took it one step further, and the younger woman turned to look down at the way her best friend was currently cuddling her right arm too. So tight that Beca really had had no choice but to leave her hand resting on Chloe’s left thigh. Again, though, they were the closest as two people could be without actually being in a relationship with one another.

Chloe kept her eyes closed. She’d woken up several minutes ago but wanted to make the most of this. Make the most of Beca _actually_ allowing her to do something affectionate in public. Because Beca was far from big on PDA, even though they were just friends. She felt Beca pull her headphones off in an unconventional way - over her head - presumably to keep from disturbing the snoozing woman. 

“Honestly, Beca, when are you two just gonna get all this sexual tension over and done with.” Chloe heard Amy ask in a frustrated tone and she heard an exhale fall from Beca’s mouth.

“Yeah!” A couple of The Bellas agreed, and Chloe could almost _hear_ Beca’s eyes roll. She tried to keep a straight face as she continued to pretend to sleep.

“Guys do we _always_ have to have this conversation??” The brunette asked in a frustrated tone. It was true, The Bellas had brought it up for years. Since their..Sophomore year? And every time Beca or Chloe or both would deny wanting to persue a relationship with the other. Except..both Beca and Chloe secretly did..

“You _are_ kinda both in a relationship together, Beca. You guys just..don’t kiss and stuff..” Chloe heard Aubrey say calmly and the redhead’s heart began to race. She hadn’t thought about it that way before. 

Like, sure they shared a bed in their studio apartment back home but that was because they had no space for another! And yeah, so what if they’d been out at one of these European bars and had held hands from time to time while stood at the bar? Or one of them lolled an arm over the back of the other’s chair because they usually sat beside each other. So what if Beca had conceded that yes she would allow Chloe to buy more souvenirs and keep-sakes on this trip because the redhead could use the space in Beca’s luggage. And so what if Beca had actually paid for a few of the more expensive items because technically she had way more money than Chloe? And so what if Chloe didn’t move when Beca lay her legs across her lap when sharing a couch in their hotel lobby’s? And so what if they’d had separate hotel rooms on this tour but had both fallen asleep in the same bed each night because it was the only way they could fall asleep? And so what if the Bellas now had a game of ‘guess which hotel bed Bhloe fell asleep in’…. it didnt mean anything!

“Yeah I’m not having this conversation with you guys..” Beca began.

“Why not?? Chloe’s asleep!” Flo protested.

“Yeah if anything now is the _perfect_ time to be having this conversation!” Cynthia Rose added.

“Because she’s not asleep guys. She’s pretending to be..” Beca said, shaking her head at her friend’s’ stupidity while she looked back down at her phone.

“How do you-“ Emily began, but Beca was quick to interject in a no-nonsense tone:

“-When you share a bed with someone for two years you get to know their breathing Legacy, that’s how..”

Chloe couldn’t help the small smile that grew on her face. Damn Beca was good, and the Bellas all looked surprised when Chloe opened her eyes and sat up. Beca shrugged, giving them all a “See!” sort of expression. But it only made the Bellas smile more.

“You can protest all you like Beca, but if that doesn’t warrant the ‘wives’ hashtag I don’t know what does!” Ashley said with a grin and the Bellas nodded in agreement.   
Beca rolled her eyes but didn’t move her hand from Chloe’s thigh..

Chloe suddenly sat up straighter when she saw Chicago walking up the gangway towards them and Beca must’ve sensed her best friend’s change in posture, because she looked up from her phone and groaned internally. If ever there was a person that opitomised the phrase ‘Cock-Blocker’ this soldier was it.

Any time Beca was just about to get comfortable with whatever PDA Chloe had been giving her, he’d miraculously arrive, distracting the redhead. And that familiar knot of jealousy in Beca’s stomach would appear. 

“Beca, just so you know, one of DJ Khaled’s people..Theo?” Beca nodded, though she wanted to thump the guy in his stupid chistled face. Chloe took a sharp intake of breath at the mention of Theo’s name. “He’s asked to see you once we get to the hotel.”

Beca hesitated, furrowing her brow slightly, “Oh..” why the hell did ‘Turtle-guy’ want to see her and not all the Bellas? “O-kay..?”

Chloe meanwhile felt that familiar knot of jealousy twist in her stomach. There was something creepy about the way ‘Theo’ looked at Beca and she didn’t like it one bit. Not to mention the fact that whenever she and Beca and the rest of The Bellas were busy getting ready to go on stage he’d miraculously appear, watching Beca closely. And Beca often smiled politely at him. At the guy that looked so similar to Jesse..

The two women were too busy thinking about their respective male threats - Beca about Chicago and Chloe about Theo - that neither of them noticed the way Chicago glanced down at Beca’s hand that was rested on Chloe’s thigh and the way Chloe now had her hand on top of Beca’s. The man cleared his throat, then nodded politely to the two best friends, then to the Bellas.

“We’ll be landing in about 20 minutes Bellas..” he said firmly with a smile, then returned to his seat.

“A hot date with Mr Eye-Contact huh Beca?” Cynthia-Rose said in a teasing tone, wiggling her eyebrows. The pit of Chloe’s stomach fell and she watched as Beca’s cheeks flushed pink, the brunette removing her hand from Chloe’s thigh and sitting up, muttering a “Shut up..”

Beca clearly had a thing for this Theo guy, and Chloe was distraught.


	12. The Cookie

Beca stood in a swanky hotel in the South of France, glancing around at the impressive interior while she walked with the rest The Bellas. She glanced to her right, the knot of jealousy in her stomach tightening as she watched Chloe slowly walking alongside Chicago.

“Ooh lets get a selfie!!” Ashley called out, and Beca let out a small groan as she was tugged by Flo into a small group photo with herself, Ashley and Fat Amy. She’d hated photos back when she’d first joined The Bellas. For some reason the girls always insisted on taking them. Nowadays she was able to look back on those photos and was relieved that she’d taken part in them. It was nice to be able to reminisce about their Barden days. 

So Beca forced a smile on her face while Ashley took the selfie. It was rare to be involved in a selfie and not have Chloe by her side. Chloe was often the selfie initiator within the group..

Beca stepped out of the huddle, muttering something about how that was the only photo they were going to get out of her, and turned to look over at Chloe and Chicago, a lump forming in her throat when she saw Chloe looking up at the handsome man as though he were the only thing in this world. And it killed the brunette, who quickly turned away, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket, not really knowing what to do with herself. She needed a distraction. 

Fat Amy mentioned something to her about free cookies, motioning to a posh plate of cookies to their left, but Beca didn’t really have time to respond before Ashley called out, “One more!” and Flo dragged them back into a group huddle once again. Beca sighed, throwing her thumbs up to make the photo as dorky as possible. Surely that would be the only additional photo..

Chloe looked over at Beca while she listened to Chicago telling her how being in the army was like having a family and that was something she also shared with the Bellas, “…you guys come together for this tour and when it’s over you go your separate ways but..” tears began tainting Chloe’s eyes slightly as Chicago continued his sweet analogy, “…you’re always going to be there for each other, right?” Chloe watched as Beca peeled herself out of the huddle that the redhead knew her best friend would’ve _hated_ , knowing that Beca only tolerated one photo rather than several.

“You’re never really alone.” Chicago added kindly, and Chloe watched Fat Amy hold a cookie out to Beca, the brunette flinching, then realising what it was so took it between her teeth. Chloe smiled softly, adoring the sight of her petite best friend munching merrily on the cookie. The man had a point. From the moment Beca had come into her life she’d never felt alone. In fact as the years had gone on their friendship had grown into this unbreakable relationship that Chloe valued beyond any other relationship in her life. Beca was her person, and always would be. And because of this it probably meant having to let her go again so Beca could be with someone. Last time it was Jesse. This time, Theo..

“Wow, that was really cheesy.” Chicago finished sheepishly, and Chloe turned to look at him, loving how sweet the soldier was.

“No,” she said softly, “I liked it.”

After a couple of moments Chloe turned to look back over at The Bellas, Fat Amy having now wandered off, leaving Ashley showing Flo and Beca the selfies she’d taken. To Chloe’s surprise she saw that Beca wasn’t looking at the selfies at all and instead was looking over at her with an expression that Chloe couldn’t read. The redhead took a deep breath when she watched Beca look away as Flo said something to her.

“Um, could I ask you something?” Chicago asked tentatively and Chloe turned back to him, raising her eyebrows expectantly with a small nod and a sweet “mmhmm!”

The soldier looked a little nervous, “I know this isn’t really any of my business but..what’s the deal with you and Beca?”

Chloe’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of Beca’s name being mentioned. If she were truly honest and didn’t get so flustered when talking about Beca to other people then she would’ve simply answered his question with a shrug and a “We’re just best friends.” But this was Chloe Beale. Being asked about her secret crush. Her response was going to be far from cool. 

And as Chloe spoke quickly, becoming more flustered by the second, she used her hands more to explain things:

“Oh..me and Beca? Yeah we’re..um..well you know, we’re best friends. Like, the best of friends. We’ve lived together for 6 years. We know each other inside and out..not..not _sexually_..well..we have been sharing a bed over the past couple of years..” Chicago, who had been smiling slightly in amusement at how sweet Chloe was when flustered, suddenly dropped his expression into one of surprise at the mention of Chloe and Beca sharing a bed, but Chloe hadn’t really noticed, “And we’re _kinda_ in this weird funk at the moment where we cant really sleep in seperate beds anymore because we’re so used to sharing a bed that we’ve been sharing hotel rooms every night this week..” 

“So you’re..sleeping together..?” Chicago asked cautiously.

“Yep.” Chloe answered quickly, then realised how that sounded, “No!” she quickly added, “Uh..not like that..we just share a bed and..and sleep..or, you know, just chat..about whatever..” Chloe could feel the heat rising in her cheeks as Chicago furrowed his brow. She looked over at where she’d last seen Beca, but her stomach knotted when she realised that her best friend had wandered off with a couple of the other Bellas. Chloe glanced around to see if she could see her, but she’d gone, and the redhead’s shoulders sank.

“Okay so..you’re just best friends who happen to live together and share a bed.” Chicago summarised in a slightly suspicious tone. Chloe turned to look back at him and she let out a small sigh. He wasn’t a complete stranger any more. So she decided that telling him wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“Look…I-I haven’t really told anyone this before but…” Chloe paused, biting her bottom lip nervously. This was so risky. Admitting it outloud would be the first step in letting go of these feelings she had for Beca. Admitting it outloud would mark the start of the end of this chapter in her life. And Chloe hated change. “I’ve had this.. _crazy_ crush on Beca ever since I met her seven years ago. And it’s stupid because she’d never feel the same way about me-“

“-You don’t know that.” Chicago interrupted positively, an encouraging look on his face, “Based on what you’ve said to me and the way the two of you interact, I was under the impression the two of you were already together!”

“Oh..” Chloe said, her eyebrows raising while Chicago chuckled.

“I think you should go for it. Tell her how you feel.” Chloe swallowed loudly as the soldier continued talking, “I mean, from the sounds of things you’re both pretty much there.” And Chicago shrugged as he added, with a kind smile, “You just haven’t properly told each other how you feel yet.”

“Right..” Chloe said quietly with a small nod. The guy had a point. “Except..there’s one small hitch in that plan..” and Chloe let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head sadly, “Theo..”

“Oh..” Chicago answered, raising his eyebrows in surprise, “I didn’t realise they were-“

“-Yeah..I mean..she’s not said anything but-”

“-But you’re her best friend, so you know.” Chicago said in a sympathetic voice and Chloe just nodded, tears in her eyes again.

“Hey, I know a nice bar down the street. Why don’t Zeke and I take you and the Bellas there? You guys can have an afternoon drink in the sun..” 

A small smile washed over Chloe’s face and she nodded gently, “Yeah, that’d be nice. Thanks.”


	13. The Dilema

Shit. Well that hadn’t been what Beca had expected in the slightest. A recording contract. DJ Khaled’s label wanted to sign  _her_. Not The Bellas. Just her!

Yeah it was an incredible offer and yeah it had come at the perfect time because she didn’t exactly have a job to go back to at the end of this USO tour. But accepting this offer meant the potential of having to move away from Brooklyn and most likely over to LA.

And moving to LA meant moving away from Chloe. Forever.

Beca swallowed loudly, wandering through the swanky hotel in some sort of daze as she had done for a good couple of hours now. What was she going to do? The Bellas had been determined to try to win this competition. To be picked to open for DJ Khaled tomorrow evening. But DJ Khaled had chosen Beca instead. She knew she could never take up the opportunity to go solo. After all, she owed the Bellas everything. It was thanks to them that she had become the far happier and affectionate person she was today. It was thanks to them she’d got as far as she had already in the music industry..

As Beca slowly trundled up the staircase to her hotel room it occurred to her that in reality it was actually thanks to Chloe that she had become the far happier and affectionate person she was today. That she’d got as far as she had already in the music industry because of  _her_. Because Chloe told Beca everyday how amazing and talented she was. Ok so the redhead didn’t always  _say_  it, but Beca could so often see the pride in Chloe’s bright blue eyes.

God those eyes. Beca groaned as she stopped on one of the floors of the hotel and leant her back against a wall, her head rolling back onto the surface with a small thud. Perhaps this move would be a good thing? Maybe..maybe finally putting some distance between herself and Chloe would help eliminate the raging crush she’d had on her best friend for around four years now? After all, Chloe had seemed so happy with Chicago?

Ugh. The thought of the tall, handsome, chistled ‘Channing Tatum’ lookalike made that all too familiar knot of jealousy tighten in Beca’s stomach again. Yeah maybe accepting the offer wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Except..it would be. She’d lived the past seven years knowing Chloe. Seeing her every day. She’d lived  _with_  Chloe for six of those years. And when they’d left their little studio apartment a few days ago they definitely hadn’t done so with the intention of it being one of the final times they would be living together. Because Beca hadn’t imagined there would be a moment that they would ever  _not_  live together. Which was foolish really..because it wasn’t like they were going to grow old together. They weren’t going to be in their fifties and  _still_  share a bed.

Beca pushed her body off the wall and continued slowly up the staircase to try to get to the floor that the Bellas hotel rooms were on. She could do it maybe? She could..just..tell Chloe exactly how she felt. Go right out there. Take the plunge.

The brunette pulled her phone out of her pocket and wrote a text out:

_“Hey, can we talk? Nothing to worry about just..I really need to tell you something xx”_

Beca sent the text to Chloe then took a deep breath. Yeah, she’d tell her. Then it wouldn’t matter if Beca said yes to this offer or not because Chloe would just come with her, right?

Wrong. Chloe was due to start Vet School in September in New York. Well..the woman hadn’t had the confirmation through yet but Beca just knew that Chloe would get it. Because it was Chloe. She was amazing. Why wouldn’t they want her? And because they’d want her, and she’d be starting Vet School in September, there’s no way that she’d move over to LA with Beca. In fact there was no way Beca would want Chloe to move over to LA with her..because it would distract the redhead from her dream career. And Beca loved her so much that she wanted to support her.

Beca let out a heavy sigh. So telling Chloe how she felt was a big no-no. Not that she ever imagined finding the balls to tell her how she really felt anyway..

She began frantically composing another text:

_“Actually forget it. I’m good. We’re good. I’ll see you later xx”_

Beca sent the text then read it over again, rolling her eyes when she realised just how awkward she sounded.

_“I meant ‘we’ as in..not you and me ‘we’..like a couple. Just so you know. Of course we’re good. As friends. Nothing weird xx”_

And as the text sent to Chloe, Beca groaned. Because of  _course_  that hadn’t been what the text had originally read like but it did now! God, Chloe was going to get all weird on her. She had to make this right.

_“Sorry. I’m just freaking out about something. Will you call me please? Xx”_

The brunette reached the floor that the Bellas rooms were on. She fished the key to her room out of her back pocket and read the number on the key ring. 368. Here’s hoping it was fourth time lucky in getting a room that was next to Chloe’s. At least then they could spend their final couple of nights on this tour hopefully sharing a bed again - Chloe sleeping in Beca’s or Beca sleeping in Chloe’s. Emily had caught up with Beca earlier while the brunette had been approaching the pool area of the posh hotel with Flo, Ashley and CR. Beca had been all too keen to get away from having to watch Chloe talking to Chicago in the hotel lobby.. Emily had handed her her hotel room key, mentioning that Chicago had asked her to give that one to Beca.

Beca checked her phone again and furrowed her brow. Chloe never took this long to text back. And her stomach sank. What if she’d read those weird texts and freaked out? What if she’d shown the Bellas? What if they were now freaking out too but for a completely different reason? She had to make this right. So Beca went to the ‘favourites’ section of her phone and clicked on the name at the top of the list. On Chloe’s name. And she brought her phone to her ear as she called her. Straight to voicemail. Shit.

“Hey, um..it’s me..” Beca looked down at her feet as she came to a stop outside her hotel room, “I’m sorry I just sent you those weird texts I was..just being a weirdo.”  _Stop_  saying the word ‘weird’ Mitchell!! “If, um…well if you could call me back that’d be great and maybe we could talk about it. Or not. It..it’s totally up to you dude..” Beca scrunched her face up as she called Chloe ‘dude’. She meant more to her than just a ‘dude’. God she was starting to panic. Hang up Mitchell! Just fucking hang up!! “Okay..IIIII’m gonna hang up now. Sorry..uh..I’m not-“ Beca sighed heavily, hanging her head. God why did Chloe make her like this sometimes? “..not  _sorry_..just..just call me yeah?”

Beca ended the call in a panicked fashion and stared at her phone screen with a sigh. The wallpaper on the back of the home screen was a selfie Chloe had taken of her and Beca, at a rooftop garden restaurant in NYC last month that they’d gone to to celebrate Beca’s second year at BFD records. Beca swallowed loudly, rolling her eyes at how stupid she must’ve sounded on that voicemail to Chloe. God here’s hoping Chloe didn’t freak out on her..

Beca unlocked the door to the hotel room and she paused, furrowing her brow. Because this wasn’t a single room like she had been getting in previous hotels. This was..a  _suite_!

The woman’s eyes honed in on her suitcase by the door, then noted that Chloe’s suitcase was beside it. Were..were they sharing on purpose?? Because it wasn’t like the army seemed low on money to have their ‘tour darlings’ share hotel rooms.

Beca closed the door over, slowly walking through the suite, past the couch and through to the other end of the room (which was almost twice as big as the studio apartment she shared with Chloe and Fat Amy back home in Brooklyn) over to the huge king-size bed. And a small smile washed over her face. Because Chloe was going to  _love_  this suite!

And suddenly Beca felt her stomach churn with nerves. Because she’d thought about Chloe again, and the idea of having to tell Chloe about this incredible offer that she’d been given by DJ Khaled’s label both excited her and terrified her.

Even though she was never going to accept the offer, the idea that she and Chloe would have to discuss it, and maybe come to the conclusion that they would have to seperate sucked. Not…not  _seperate_  like they were in a fucking relationship. Because no matter how often the Bellas said that Beca and Chloe were practically in a relationship, they  _weren’t_. They were just…best friends. Best friends that shared a bed. And could communicate with just a look. And had a joint bank account. And cuddled from time to time. And knew each other than they better knew themselves sometimes.

And sure Beca had some seriously strong romantic feelings for her best friend. Like sometimes, when they were sat in bed together, and she watched how passionate Chloe would get when talking about something or other, Beca often had a sudden urge to kiss those perfect lips of hers. Wrap her arms around that beautiful toned body. And just-

Beca jumped as she heard a thud against the wall behind the headboard of the bed, and suddenly it occurred to her that she had no idea where the Bellas were. And in particular Fat Amy. For no matter how ‘out-there’ Amy was, she would always tell Beca exactly what she thought. Amy would know what she should do about this whole recording contract thing. If she could get a straight answer, it would be from Amy.

So the brunette took one last look at the hotel bed that she and Chloe would be sharing, then slowly made her way through the suite, and out of the room, taking her key with her. She wandered down the corridor, stopped at the door, then leant an ear against the wood. She recognised the voice inside. That was Amy alright.

Beca opened the door and took a couple of steps inside, “Hey Amy? Um I need to talk to you about something. It’s kinda important.”

“Oh yeah just a sec I’m on a call..” Amy replied innocently.

“Okay” Beca said nervously, watching as her best friend turned her back on her again and began muttering something low and threatening into the phone.

The brunette glanced around Amy’s hotel room. It was far smaller than the suite she and Chloe had been given. And from the looks of things the Australian wasn’t expected to share it with anyone.

Beca looked over at the bed, noting the way the headboard backed onto the wall that, on the other side, was connected to Beca and Chloe’s hotel suite. Ah, that had been the bang - Amy was always lumping onto her bed with a massive thud, something that both Beca  _and_  Chloe had called her up on back home.  _Home_.

Perhaps she should also ask Amy whether she should tell Chloe about her feelings for the redhead too..


	14. The Paddle Boat

“Okay Amy stop, STOP!” Beca reached out and grabbed the back of her friend’s jacket, pulling the Australian to a stop, “For the millionth time will you _please_ tell me what the hell is going on??”

They had just been striding down a jetty, having just got out of a cab that had driven them here from the hotel. Fat Amy had insisted she’d changed out of her top and into something more ‘flexible’ - though Beca couldn’t honestly see how her leather jacket could be deemed flexible but whatever.

The woman watched as her best friend let out a sigh of defeat, “Okay, I don’t want you freaking out but-“

“-Well that doesn’t sound good..” Beca muttered.

“My Dad found me at the market place earlier..”

“Amy, I know you and your Dad reunited, this isn’t exactly news..” Beca said in a distracted tone, not feeling in the most patient of moods to be having to deal with one of Amy’s crazy ideas. So she looked down at her phone, still surprised that Chloe hadn’t texted or called her back. Chloe never left texts unanswered this long..

Meanwhile Amy had begun slinging a rucksack into a small paddle boat that was ‘docked’ on the edge of the jetty, “..well we got in a fight over money and..” Amy threw some rope into the boat, “..he kidnapped the Bellas..”

Beca’s eyes snapped up from her phone while she furrowed her brow in confusion, “Wait wh-what?”

Amy paused her movements then shrugged, as if it was a very normal thing to happen, “Yeah he said if I didn’t give him the money he’ll kill them..”

A small smile grew on Beca’s face but she was beginning to panic inside, “Y-your kidding..right?” This had to be a joke. But to her horror Amy let out a sigh, raising her eyebrows seriously with a shrug.

“I wish I was. Once an Aussy Mafia Boss, always an Aussy Mafia Boss, am I right?” And the woman smiled, holding her hand up to her best friend, but Beca looked at it and shook her head.

“I’m not high fiving that.” Amy shrugged then began stepping into the Paddle Boat. “So..” Beca began, her heart beginning to race a little, “..what are we doing here??”

“They’re being held captive on my Dad’s yacht.”

“Of course they are..” Beca said with a sigh, then she glanced down at her phone, immediately feeling guilty that she’d concluded that Chloe was ignoring her texts. The poor woman had been kidnapped. _Kidnapped_. Shit.

“So we’re gonna go rescue them.” Amy said plainly, holding her hand out to invite Beca onto the small paddle boat.

“Wha-uh-what?!” Beca said in confusion. What good were they gonna be to The Bellas if they went on that yacht too?

“Look, Chloe’s on that yacht.” Amy said in a tone that Beca knew was her bribing tone. “Probably scared. Probably alone.”

“With seven other women and a bunch of thugs but yeah, ‘alone’..” Beca said sarcastically while crossing her arms, but the pit of her stomach had rocked.

“I’m just saying, if anyone’s gonna be able to get her safely off that yacht it’s you, right..?”  
Beca rolled her eyes at the cheesy comment but looked down at Amy’s outstretched hand all the same. Tempted. Because Beca knew how restless she’d be if she weren’t on that yacht. If she didn’t know whether Chloe was safe or not. At least if she was _with_ Chloe..

“You’d be a hero Beca..”

Beca raised her eyebrows with an unimpressed expression and Amy knew she may have pushed the boundaries a bit too far.

“Uuum..or, you know, just another girl rescuing her friends.”

Beca bit her bottom lip, flipping her phone around in her hands. She didn’t know how Amy always got her in these sorts of situations. But here they were.

“And the longer we stay here the less time we have to save them so..” Amy said with a shrug, reaching out for one of the oars and Beca rolled her eyes.

“Fine! I’ll go. But I’m not happy about this..” Beca grumbled as she tentatively stepped into the paddle boat. As she watched her friend push them away from the jetty, Beca began composing a text to Chloe.

_Me and Amy are coming for you and the Bellas. Everything’s gonna be okay xx_

She hesitated as the message sent, then held her breath as the reality of what was about to happen came tumbling down over her. What if they didn’t make it on time? What if Amy’s Dad wasn’t bluffing? What if..he _did_ kill them? The Bellas were here family. Everything she had. With no Bellas in her life Beca really didn’t know what she’d-

“Are you texting Chloe?”

Beca jumped out of her thoughts and looked up from her phone, “Um..yeah..I was just..telling her we’re on our way.” Beca said quietly, putting her phone in her jacket pocket then taking one of the oars.

“You should just tell her how you feel Beca.”

“Wh-..what?” Beca asked hesitantly.

“Oh come on Beca. This is me you’re talking to. Your better more beautiful best friend. I know you. And I know you have a thing for Chloe.”

Beca screwed her face up, looking down at the water beside her while she swept an oar through it. Because Amy was right. She did have a thing for Chloe..

“Call her and tell her exactly how you feel. Just in case you never get another chance..” Amy said, still looking ahead of them at her father’s yacht in the distance.

“It’s no good. Her phone’s been going straight to voicemail.” Beca muttered miserably, half-heartedly paddling with the oar.

“So leave her a message.” Amy shrugged, looking over her shoulder at her best friend and Beca hesitated then looked up at Amy. Fuck. _How_ was it that Amy was always able to see through her when it came to Chloe?  
So Beca let out a sigh, pulled her phone out of her pocket, and found Chloe’s number again. She looked awkwardly at Amy while bringing her phone to her ear, and turned slightly in her seat to try to get some privacy. As expected the call went straight to voicemail and Beca heard Chloe’s bright bubbly voice say, “Heeeeey, it’s me! Leave a message!”

Beca’s stomach knotted with nerves as a long ‘beep’ was sounded down the phone. She hesitated. Fuck. What the hell was she going to say??

“Um..hey..uh..it’s me. Beca. Which you already know because you probably saw my name on the screen when you pressed play.. Ugh..I’m sorry I’m being so shit with these messages.. I’m just nervous. Which is stupid because it’s only you. Not..I didnt mean..” Beca sighed and hung her head, “..I didn’t mean that you’re _only_ you..I meant..” Beca looked up at the stars and sighed again, pausing, her heart racing, her stomach churning, “Okay..here’s the thing..I don’t know what’s gonna happen tonight. But from what Amy’s been telling me things could go bad. And if they do..and you make it but I don’t..” Beca cringed, God this was sounding cheesy. How could she make it less cheesy?? She couldn’t. That’s what. So Beca swallowed loudly, and looked down at her feet, “I just wanted you to know that…” she bit her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes shut. “I like you. Like _really_ like you. I’ve liked you for a long time now..and I know I should’ve told you sooner..and that I’m an idiot for not telling you before now. But..” Beca sighed as they began approaching the yacht up ahead, “..if this is one of the last things you hear me tell you then I’m okay with that. Because I love you..” she saw out the corner of her eye Amy turn to grin at her, “aaand..I’m gonna have to end this message now because we’re about to reach the boat. But I’m gonna find you and..I’m gonna-“

“-kiss you!” Fat Amy finished unhelpfully, and Beca glared at her, saying in a sharp low voice,

“Dude I’m not gonna _kiss_ her!”

“But you said you love her!” Amy whispered back innocently.

“I know but..that doesn’t mean I’m gonna _jump_ on her the second I see her!!” Beca hissed back. She watched in frustration as Amy shrugged.

But just as Beca was about add something more, the voicemail cut off, and the brunette looked at her phone. Great. No signal. She rolled her eyes and shoved her phone back in her pocket. Of course there was no signal. That was the only explaination as to why Chloe’s phone had been going straight to voicemail. Beca picked up the oar again and continued paddling the little paddle boat towards the yacht.

What was done was done. Now she just needed to get to Chloe and the rest of The Bellas and find out what sort of mess they were in..


	15. The Connection

Okay so Beca had successfully managed to locate The Bellas - which hadn’t turned out to be too difficult in the end. They’d just been on the top deck of the swish yacht. All sat huddled together. Fortunately not tied up with rope or anything. 

When the brunette had crept up behind the group undetected by anyone on board - including the thugs that had kidnapped the women in the first place - she had immediately sat behind Chloe. Call it what you will, but it was a natural decision. They were drawn to one another and as it stood they’d spent a long eight hours apart. 

The temptation to reach out and place an assuring hand on Chloe’s back was huge. But Beca had resisted, knowing all too well how loudly Chloe yelped if she was surprised. So the brunette had ducked down until a perfect moment to pipe up.

At the sound of her voice the Bellas had all turned around. And Beca had been so desperately looking around, relieved that they were all okay, and trying hard to communicate with them that they needed to sing, that she had successfully resisted the urge to suddenly throw her arms around her best friend. If she looked at Chloe now she ran the risk of bursting into tears. 

Chloe, meanwhile had been stunned to see Beca sat behind her, turning to look at the brunette who seemed to purposefully look at any of the Bellas except her. Which Chloe thought was odd, because of all the Bellas that Beca was the closest to she thought it was her.

Then the redhead remembered that her best friend had just spent however many hours with that Theo guy and the sickness in the pit of her stomach churned from the fear of having been kidnapped to the fear of the reality that this time apart from Beca was probably going to become more frequent the more time Beca spent with that music exec guy.

She watched as Beca stood up, and persistently looked around at the Bellas before her, insisting that they should sing one last song together before they died. Chloe had been confused at first, but had seen the whites of Beca’s eyes when her best friend finally looked at her and in an instant Chloe knew that Beca and Amy were up to something. After all, that was the look Beca had given her on all too many occasions when they’d been co-captains at Barden..

So Chloe had nodded gently and risen to her feet, the rest of The Bellas joining them. And Beca had hissed under her breath at how terrible they were at reading signals. The most unusual acapella cover the Bellas could do was ‘Toxic’, something that would throw the thugs off guard almost as much as it had done their critics back in Barden. So Chloe suggested under her breath that they sing it, while briefly grabbing then squeezing Beca’s hand - almost as a thanks. But she could tell from the way Beca refused to look at her that her best friend was in ‘the zone’. 

The Bellas had fanned out to clear the floor, then regrouped to begin their acapella rendition of ‘Toxic’. Throughout the performance Chloe kept looking at Beca, trying to work out what she might be up to, waiting for a signal or a sign that meant she had to do something. But the woman continued singing and dancing in time with their fellow Bellas. 

So Chloe continued singing and dancing too, trying to ignore the way her heart was racing with nerves. What if this (whatever ‘this’ was) didn’t work?? What if they were all killed?

Suddenly Chloe noticed out the corner of her eye Beca approaching her and the instant their eyes met Chloe felt everything around her move in slow motion. Beca was out of place in the choreography. She’d purposefully strode over to Chloe for some reason. And the moment she saw Beca looking at her so intently was the moment Chloe felt safe. They were going to be okay, so long as they were together. 

Chloe found herself nodding slowly as her arms raised above her head in time with Beca and the rest of The Bellas, and Beca took this as Chloe’s nod of approval. As a nod of confirmation that she understood. As a nod of confirmation that she trusted her. 

And with that nod, Beca turned back to the thugs, and began singing the lead on a verse that Chloe usually took. This was the first clue The Bellas needed to know that this was actually all part of the escape plan..


	16. The Rescue Boat

Beca sat on the bench on the open deck of the rescue boat, a thick black blanket was wrapped around her petite body as her hair slowly dried in the breeze. The boat had picked them up about an hour ago, after she and the Bellas had managed to successfully jump from the yacht just as it blew up. Whatever Amy had done it had worked. They’d all got off safely. Now they were stuck at a standstill on this rescue boat while the criminals were found and arrested. 

The brunette sniffed loudly, and let out a small sigh as she reached into the pocket at the back of her wet black jeans. She groaned slightly as she realised her phone was dead. Gone. Too much seawater. At least the main people she spoke to were here on this boat with her. At least the main person in her life was here. Somewhere. 

Beca’s mind flickered to Chloe and she curled the blanket around her body a little tighter, wishing it to be her best friend’s arms. But the last time she’d seen Chloe she’d had to watch Chicago wrap a blanket around the redhead’s soaked body. And as she thought about that image again, that familiar knot of jealousy tightened in her stomach. Perhaps it was a good job Chloe’s phone had been left on that yacht with the rest of The Bellas’s jackets and phones before the vessel had blown up. At least then Beca wouldn’t have to face the embarrassment of Chloe turning her down after hearing her cringey voicemail messages. Chloe was never going to know her true feelings, and Beca was just going to have to live with that.

A familiar figure eased herself down in the space beside Beca with a sigh and the brunette turned to Amy, giving her a small smile.

“Thanks for getting us off that boat safely Ames..” Beca said quietly.

Amy shrugged, grinning at her, “You were to one who got everyone off that boat. I just cleared the area for you.”

Beca grinned, then looked out at the dark ocean ahead of them. She felt terrible that she hadn’t told Amy that she’d got the recording contract instead of the Bellas. But as she looked ahead, at the vast expanse ahead of them, she figured now was as best a time as any to do so.

“Listen, Amy. Earlier, when I mentioned about the Bellas not getting picked by Khaled to open for him tomorrow?” Beca paused as she turned to one of her closest friends and Amy looked over at her with a plain expression, “And you know how Theo took me aside for a while earlier? Well he took me to see DJ Khaled himself and-“

“Oh my God, Khaled _kissed_ you!”

“Wha-uh-no!” Beca furrowed her brow in confusion.

“ _Theo_ kissed you??”

“What  it with you presuming that I want to kiss everyone?!” 

“You haven’t exactly denied it..”

“Amy!” Beca said sharply, raising her eyebrows, and Amy knew she was in the wrong, so backed down. Beca sighed, “Amy, Khaled chose me. He…just wanted me as a solo artist. Not the Bellas. And Theo told me Khaled’s label want to sign me.” She saw Fat Amy’s eyebrows raise in surprise and Beca began to panic, realising she probably hadn’t explained things right, “I dunno, something about him finding a recording I’d made from the other day. But don’t worry, I told him no. We…we’re family. I couldn’t do that to you guys. I couldn’t ever do it alone.”

The two friends fell silent and they turned to look ahead, looking out at the dark ocean, the breeze drifting through their hair. The sky was slowly beginning to lighten. Dusk was approaching. Hopefully they’d be sailing back to shore soon.

“You gonna talk to Chloe about the messages you left her?” Amy asked tentatively, giving Beca a sidewards glance, and the brunette hung her head again, letting out a heavy sigh.

“Nah..her phone went down with the yacht and she won’t have seen or heard them. Probably better that way. Probably better that you’re the only one I’ve told.”

-

Chloe smiled as she felt Chicago sit beside her and wrap a large warm blanket around her shoulders, smoothing a soothing hand across her back. 

“Thank you” she said quietly, giving him a grateful smile, leaning into his body slightly.

Chloe, ever the affectionate type, relished the opportunity for someone to put their arm around her. Normally it would be Beca she’d be looking for, but for some reason Beca hadn’t come to find her. Little did Chloe realise, Beca had just approached the doorway of the room Chloe had been trying to warm up in, immediately leaving when she saw that Chicago had found her first..

“How are you feeling?” Chicago asked kindly, and Chloe shrugged.

“Tired. A bit soggy..” she said with a little giggle, and she enjoyed the sound of Chicago chuckling beside her. The room fell silent, and Chloe looked down at her hand that held a clump of the warm blanket around her body. “Beca saved me..” she said quietly, a soft smile on her face, “I-I mean us..she saved us Bellas.” she added quickly, sitting up and looking awkwardly at Chicago. But the man merely smiled.

“Nah, I bet she went to save you. The Bellas were just the package deal.” He said softly, giving the redhead a wink, and Chloe smiled again while she looked up into his eyes. It was weird to think that she’d only known this man a few days and yet she’d trusted him with her biggest secret. That she was secretly in love with her best friend. That she was secretly in love with Beca.

“You should really go and find her Chloe. Go and tell her how you feel.” Chicago added, his soft smile still shining at Chloe and the redhead felt her heart skip a beat. And not because she was attracted to him. Because she wasn’t. Sure, he was very handsome and very kind. But he wasn’t Beca. Chloe hesitated but Chicago gave her an extra tight squeeze around the shoulders for encouragement, “The woman went onto an armed yacht to rescue you. Hardly the actions of someone who doesn’t love you.”  
Chloe let out a sigh, “Okay. I’ll do it.” 

“I’ll be right here if you need me.” Chicago said kindly, releasing Chloe’s body. Chloe stood up quickly, then placed a kiss on the soldier’s cheek before standing upright in front of him.

“Thanks Chicago.” 

-

“Oh my God, Khaled _kissed_ you!”

“Wha-uh-no!”

“ _Theo_ kissed you??”

Chloe’s froze, her breath catching in her throat as she stood a few feet behind her best friend’s. Beca and Amy had been talking when Chloe had stepped out onto the deck, and wandered towards them.

“What is it with you presuming that I want to kiss everyone?!” 

“You haven’t exactly denied it..”

God, Amy was right. Beca hadn’t denied it! She wasn’t denying that Theo kissed her. And Chloe’s stomach twisted with jealousy. Of course he’d kissed Beca. Who wouldn’t? She was.. _wonderful_. Beautiful. Perfect. And Chloe adored her. Which was why she was struggling to process what Beca was saying to Amy now. Something about Khaled’s label wanting to sign Beca alone instead of The Bellas. And Chloe began to zone out as she imagined Beca with all her beauty, winning Grammy’s for incredible music that she’d made, walking the red carpet with her boyfriend. That boyfriend being Theo. God, Chloe suddenly felt sick. She came back to reality when she heard her name being mentioned by Amy.

“You gonna talk to Chloe about the messages you left her?”

And Chloe furrowed her brow when she heard her best friend - her crush - respond with a sad, “Nah..her phone went down with the yacht and she won’t have seen or heard them. Probably better that way. Probably better that you’re the only one I’ve told.”

Chloe felt her stomach knot again. Because she realised for the first time in a very very long time, Beca had told Amy a secret but not told her. And from the sounds of things Beca had no intention of telling her this particular secret. Of telling her about the secret recording contract she’d been offered by DJ Khaled’s label.

The redhead turned on the spot and sadly wandered back inside the vessel. The rescue boat was beginning to move, and Chloe felt a sense of relief. At least they would be back on shore soon. 

As she made her way back to the room, Chloe felt her cellphone chime in her back pocket and she jumped. Her hand flew to the device and she smiled, realising that for all the times Beca had made fun of her new phone for apparently being ‘waterproof’ it had finally actually paid off! It was waterproof! The boat must have moved them into range of some signal..

Chloe saw several messages and missed calls flash up on her screen. She unlocked her phone as she moved, immediately going to her messages. They all appeared to be from Beca:

[Yesterday 2109] “Hey, can we talk? Nothing to worry about just..I really need to tell you something xx”

Chloe swallowed loudly. She knew that ‘thing’ was probably about Theo. About how Beca and him had kissed..

[Yesterday 2110]“Actually forget it. I’m good. We’re good. I’ll see you later xx” 

If ever there were a text that almost confirmed Chloe’s initial assumptions then that was it. Until the icing on the bitter cake:

[Yesterday 2112]“I meant ‘we’ as in..not you and me ‘we’..like a couple. Just so you know. Of course we’re good. As friends. Nothing weird xx”

Friends. Yeah. That was all they were. Of course they were only friends. And Chloe felt her heart ache as she read her best friend’s next message:

[Yesterday 2113]“Sorry. I’m just freaking out about something. Will you call me please? Xx” 

Chloe knew Beca better than anyone. And she knew that the brunette would’ve freaked out the second she’d finished kissing Theo. And Chloe stopped walking to she could just collect her thoughts for a moment, rereading the final text. She felt terrible for having not had any signal. For missing Beca’s calls and messages. Her blue eyes skipped over the final text that had been sent almost an hour later:

[Yesterday 2201] “Me and Amy are coming for you and the Bellas. Everything’s gonna be okay xx”

A soft smile washed over her face. Beca and Amy had got to them. And Chloe closed her eyes for a moment, remembering that look Beca had given her midway through the performance of ‘Toxic’ that they had done with The Bellas. Chloe swore she’d never felt so safe in her life during that brief, almost intimate, moment between her and Beca, when their eyes had locked. It had been as though they had been the only the two in the room. A connection unlike anything Chloe had felt with anyone before. A connection that had somewhat stunned her. 

Chloe let out a shaky sigh, tears building in her eyes. If she hadn’t just overheard Beca talking about Theo then Chloe might’ve thought that connection had meant something. But no. It hadn’t. Clearly Beca had been focussed on getting them all off that yacht..

The redhead swiped through to the missed calls she’d received, all of which had a voicemail left for her. One from Beca - yesterday at 2124, one from an unknown number - yesterday at 2131, and a final missed call from Beca - yesterday at 2205. 

Chloe brought her phone to her ear and listened to the first message from Beca at 2124, and her heart began to race a little as she heard her best friend sounding unusually nervous:

“Hey, um..it’s me..I’m sorry I just sent you those weird texts I was..just being a weirdo.” 

Chloe smiled softly at the amount of times Beca had mentioned the word ‘weird’. She knew the woman well enough now to know that that was her buzzword whenever she was nervous, not that Chloe had told her. The redhead slowly wandered through to the room she had been sat in with Chicago, still listening to Beca’s voice on the message her best friend had left her a few hours ago:

“If, um…well if you could call me back that’d be great and maybe we could talk about it. Or not. It..it’s totally up to you dude..” 

Chloe thought she heard Beca grimace slightly after using the word ‘dude’, her tone having changed to a far more awkward tone:

“Okay..IIIII’m gonna hang up now. Sorry..uh..I’m not-“ 

Chloe felt her heart skip a beat, curious as to why Beca sighed down the phone while she paused. Had Beca really been that nervous to tell her about Theo?

“..not sorry..just..just call me yeah?”

And the message ended instantly. Chloe had found herself in the doorway of the room and brought the phone down from her ear, impressed to see that Chicago was still in there. He stood up the second he saw her, looking at her expectantly.

“Well??” 

But Chloe shook her head slowly. Sadly. The memory of hearing Beca tell Amy that she wasn’t going to tell Chloe about the recording contract and the kiss..

“Chloe I’m so sorry.” The soldier said sympathetically, striding over to the redhead and enveloping her in a large hug. The redhead let out a small sob, but she didn’t cry. She was too tired to cry. But she did relish the feel of the tight hug. She loved hugs. And as she was mostly the initiator of hugs, she made the most of someone initiating a hug for once.

Chicago peeled his arms from around the woman and Chloe let out a sigh, looking down at her phone. Next message. From a mysterious unknown number. She held the device to her ear and held her breath.

“Good afternoon, this is a call for Chloe Beale. Chloe, my name is Janet calling from the ‘UC Davis School Of Veterinary Medicine’. It’s my honour to be able to inform you that we’d like to accept you onto our Veterinary course beginning this September. If you could please return my call on-“ 

But Chloe didn’t listen to the number being left on the message, because a huge grin swept over her face while she let out an excitable squeal.

“Wha-? What’s going on??” Chicago asked in happy confusion at the woman’s expression. 

Chloe squealed and lunged up to throw her arms around the man’s shoulders, exclaiming excitably, “I got into Vet School!!!” She quickly stepped back, beaming as she looked down at her phone, her smile waivering slightly when she noticed her battery had run out on her cell phone. 

“Hey, congratulations!!” Chicago praised, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking proudly down at her, “You’d said how much hard work you’d put into doing the application. So well done!”

Chloe smiled, her cheeks flushing slightly, overwhelmed with emotion. She needed to find the Bellas. She needed to tell them when they were all together. To experience this moment together. After all, they had been her rock these past few years, particularly with the complicated application process.

But no Bella had been there for her more than her best friend. The woman she loved with every fibre of her being. The woman Chloe realised she would need to let go. The next chapter in their lives was beginning. Chloe would be starting Vet School in the fall. And Beca would probably be moving to LA to become a recording artist. Sure, they would still be in the same state, but California was a big state..

And a part of Chloe’s heart broke the very second she realised that they were going to have to seperate..


	17. The Announcements

Beca stood against the railings of the rescue boat, the blanket still wrapped tightly around her body, relieved that she was drying off a treat. Relieved that the boat was approaching the jetty. It wouldn’t be long until they were back at the hotel and she could change out of these clothes and hopefully into some pyjamas.

She let out a small sigh when she remembered that she and Chloe were, for some strange reason, sharing a suite back at the hotel. Could she handle spending the rest of the day with her best friend while hiding the fact that she’d been offered a recording contract instead of the Bellas? Could she hide her disappointment that Chicago had got to Chloe and comforted her after the ordeal before Beca had?

“Hey..” a small familiar voice aired her way, and Beca turned slightly to her right, noticing Chloe approach her, also wrapped in a blanket - the one that Chicago had given her earlier. 

“Hey.” Beca tried to say calmly, but she was quaking a bit. As though the reality of what they’d been through was finally hitting her. Along with the reality of what she’d admitted to Chloe’s voicemail before the woman’s phone was lost at sea. And Beca’s heart ached when she saw just how beautiful Chloe looked as her best friend stood directly beside her and peered down over the railing at the ocean. There was a small smile on Chloe’s face and Beca knew the redhead was imagining that dolphins were racing along with the boat (Chloe had confessed to Beca when they’d just woken up one random Sunday morning last year that she liked to imagine dolphins swimming alongside whatever boat she was on, and monkeys swinging from street lamps whenever she was a passenger in a car).

The two best friends stood side by side, watching the jetty slowly getting closer and closer and Chloe’s mind was racing at a million miles an hour. She so desperately wanted to confront Beca about the record deal. And about Theo. But the idea of talking to her crush about the man Beca had kissed was too much for the redhead to handle. So Chloe took a deep breath instead, trying to cheer herself up. Trying not to make Beca worry.

“Oh I got your messages by the way!” She said in an overly bright tone in an attempt to keep the mood light and unagressive.

Beca’s heart jumped into her throat, “You, Uh..you did?” Her fingers began to tingle with nerves as she glanced at her best friend, and Chloe gave her a soft smile. What did that mean?? Did…did it mean Chloe felt the same way too? Or-

“Yeah.” Chloe said with a small giggle, “Waterproof phone, remember?” And she nudged the brunette with her elbow and gave her a wink. This wasn’t exactly the reaction Beca had been expecting.

“Oh..Yeah.” Beca said, forcing a small smile onto her lips. Trying to read Chloe’s expression but failing. There was no telling if her best friend had been okay with her confessing her love for her over voicemail. Well, in her final message she had done she’d confessed it. The other voicemail long before it and the text messages were all a blur to Beca. Had no idea what she’d said but she was sure she’d probably been her usual awkward self. 

After a few moments of silence, Beca swallowed loudly, “And..?” She choked out. But a slight wave of sadness began to consume her when Chloe shrugged, shaking her head slightly.

“Aaaaand..you can tell me anything Beca.” Chloe said in the tone she saved for optimism. She was trying her hardest to make Beca feel comfortable enough to tell her about Theo and how they’d kissed. To tell her about the recording contract and how it had been offered to her and not the Bellas. But for some reason Beca didn’t appear to be forthright with those confessions. So Chloe nudged her again, raising her eyebrows as she grinned brightly, encouragingly, while saying, “We’re best friends!”

It was like her heart was being tugged in all directions, so Beca shuffled her feet awkwardly, looking down at the waves below them, “Right..yeah..best friends.” Beca swallowed loudly. Fuck. She was being friend-zoned in the worst possible way right now. “So..what I said in my voice message to you-“

“-was weird!” Chloe joked with a grin, knowing how much Beca hated being caught out on being weird. Because she had said the word weird like three times in that voicemail. But when she saw Beca hesitate and not look up at her, Chloe immediately began to feel guilty, “But we’re okay! It…everything’s okay between us Beca. Honest.” She didn’t care anymore that Beca hadn’t decided to tell her first about the recording contract. She didn’t even care that Beca still couldn’t find the confidence to tell her about Theo. All she cared about was cheering Beca up.

Chloe knew Beca would eventually tell her about the recording contract. And they didn’t normally talk about boys or crushes, but Chloe imagined Beca would eventually find the headspace to tell her about Theo too. Beca always found the confidence to tell Chloe stuff, it would just sometimes take Beca a while because she needed to think things through herself first. And Chloe knew that. Because she was Beca’s best friend.

Beca’s stomach, meanwhile, felt as though it had exploded. Her chest had tightened. Her heart was racing. And she could feel tears beginning to build in the back of her eyes. 

There, Chloe had said it herself. Hearing Beca tell her that she loved her was weird. They were best friends. But everything was okay between them. Which meant they were to remain best friends..

The brunette let out a shaky sigh, then turned to look at the beautiful redhead to her right. Her crush. The woman she couldn’t crush on any more. That was it. She’d put it all on the line. Chloe had essentially said no. And although it hurt, Beca was so relieved that the redhead still wanted to remain best friends with her. Because Beca couldn’t honestly see how she was going to get through life without Chloe.

So with every ounce of strength in her body, the younger woman smiled gently, then nodded, saying gently, “Yeah. Everything’s okay Chlo.” 

The two women looked at each other with sad smiles on their faces, both too distracted by their own sadness to recognise the other’s. Chloe sad that Beca hadn’t told her what she’d told Amy. And Beca sad because she’d told Chloe exactly how she felt about her and Chloe hadn’t told her she felt the same way back.

Beca looked past Chloe for a moment and noticed the Bellas beginning to gather, with Chicago standing in front of them, clearly relaying some information. Her stomach twisted with jealousy again, but this time the twist wasn’t quite as tight. Perhaps this was the start of Beca being able to slowly let Chloe go? To slowly start getting over her feelings for the redhead?

“So,” Beca said quietly to Chloe, a small smile on her face, “Chicago huh…” 

Chloe turned to see what Beca had been looking at and saw the Bellas gathered, bundled in their respective blankets while Chicago spoke kindly to them. A small smile grew on the redhead’s face. He was a really nice guy. And she had to admit, he’d really been just what she’d needed when she realised Beca didn’t have feelings for her. He was almost like an impartial bystander. He didn’t really know her and he didn’t really know Beca. Which is why Chloe was secretly relieved it had been him who she’d found after walking away from Beca earlier and not one of the Bellas. She couldn’t possibly tell them that she was secretly in love with Beca but that nothing could ever happen between them because Beca had kissed Theo and he’d offered her a recording contract and-

“He’s a nice guy.” Chloe said simply as she turned back to her best friend and she thought she saw Beca hesitate for a moment. But if she had then the brunette quickly masked it with a nod and a smile.

“Yeah Chlo, he’s a really nice guy.”  
Beca had to admit, even though the idea of her best friend being with anyone but her was a bitter pill to swallow, of all the people Chloe could’ve chosen, she was kinda glad it was someone like him. Chicago wasn’t all that bad..

-

Beca hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to have to sit at a small table, still wrapped in that big warm blanket, and have to watch Chicago crouched between her and Chloe while he smoothed a reassuring hand across the redhead’s back. But it had been really difficult. So she’d quickly looked down at the stack of yellow cups in front of her until the soldier left. It had been the worst.

The good thing about gathering together after their hectic night of kidnap and rescue was that the Bellas finally had a chance to regroup properly and have a good old-fashioned heart-to-heart about their future. Just like they had done in their senior year.  
Fat Amy had forced Beca’s hand and Beca had confessed she’d been offered a recording contract, which despite emphatically insisting she wasn’t going to accept because it would mean doing something music-based without the Bellas, the Bellas had insisted that she go for it.

Beca’s heart had leapt for joy when she’d watched Chloe stand up and announce that she’d got the call to say that she’d got into Vet School, exclaiming, “You got in!!” And Chloe had beamed at her. Of course she’d got in! There was no way she wouldn’t have, and Beca knew that.

There was a moment when Beca realised technically, no matter where Chloe went, she would never be alone. Besides, Chloe being up at that Vet School meant they would at least still be in the same state, so that was something? Maybe Beca could get an apartment in LA and Chloe could stay there during the holidays? She’d pay for her flights of course. That was, if she wasn’t busy visiting Chicago or whatever..

“She loves hugs.” Chloe said about Beca, beaming at her, knowing just how much that would mean to the younger woman. Because she knew her best friend. And she knew the brunette put up a front about hugs. But she also knew that Beca secretly loved hugs. 

And the reason Chloe knew that was because Beca would always happily let Chloe spoon her when they fell asleep at night and tucked tightly into Chloe’s body whenever they woke up in their fold-out bed back at home. Would ‘allow’ Chloe to snuggle into her body whenever they binge-watched Netflix of a Sunday afternoon, Beca’s arm always lolling over Chloe’s shoulder, her hand intertwining with whichever hand Chloe would bring up and hold. Would snake her arm around Chloe’s waist if she approached her while they were out and about and the redhead was looking at something..

“Don’t-“ Beca said, holding her finger up with a stubborn expression, but Chloe merely grinned.

“We should give her one!”

“That’s not funny..” Beca said stubbornly, her heart skipping a beat as she watched her friend’s all smiling at her, none brighter than the beaming smile her best friend to her left. It still hurt that Chloe didn’t reciprocate her romantic feelings. But as she watched Chloe jump up from her seat and wrap her arms around her neck from behind, Beca closed her eyes, took a deep intake of her best friend’s perfume, and felt safe. 

Everything was going to be okay. She and Chloe..they were going to be okay.


	18. The Preparation

Beca stood alone in the dressing room side-of-stage. She donned an outfit that was all rather ‘out there’ for her. Sure, she’d worn some ‘out there’ outfits in her time with the Barden Bellas back in college. But this time she’d be performing on her own. Without them.

It had been a hectic day. They’d arrived back at the hotel by 9am, and the Bellas had all clambered into Beca and Chloe’s suite, stunned that not only were they the only two Bellas having to share but that the suite they had been given was huge! And because of that all the Bellas had tumbled onto huge bed, making a ‘spoon line’ starting with Fat Amy in the middle, and Lilly and Chloe at either end.

Beca had joined them all last, having had to pop down to the hotel lobby to confirm with Theo that she would be taking up the label’s offer of a recording contract. She’d swallowed loudly when she noticed a space at the edge of the full bed, just in front of Chloe, and she knew that space had been saved for her. But once she had laid her exhausted body down into the space, and had felt Chloe’s familiar arm around her waist, Beca had sighed and quickly fallen asleep.

When she’d woken up, she had done so in a different position. Her usual wake-up position. Facing Chloe, tucked tight into her body, with their legs tangled and Chloe’s arms around her. Beca had laid there with her eyes closed for ages. Just content with inhaling Chloe’s perfume. Just content with feeling all the warmth from her arms. Trying her hardest not to cry when she remembered that she’d told Chloe that she was in love with her last night, and Chloe hadn’t reciprocated those romantic feelings back.

Beca stared at her reflection and let out a heavy sigh. This was it. The start of her future as a solo recording artist. Her very first performance. She jumped when she heard a knock on the open door and Beca grinned as she watched the Bellas all pile into the room, looking stunning in black outfits that they’d clearly all agreed was their theme for the night. They were beaming at her, all with proud expressions on their faces. But no Bella looked as proud as Chloe, who already appeared to have tears in her eyes.

Beca received a hug from each and every one of them, trying to fight the tears back herself as they all left, wishing her luck. Save for one Bella.  _The_  Bella. The Bella that Beca hadn’t hugged yet. And the brunette held her breath as Chloe stepped up to her.

Chloe’s chest felt tight while she brought her hands up and re-clipped a loose strand of Beca’s hair, not overly liking the decision her best friend’s record label’s employed hairstylist had made. If it had been down to her, she would’ve had Beca have her beautiful long hair flowing down her back in loose curls, and perhaps a plait or something across the top. Not as heavily clipped as it currently was. But the label didn’t know Beca like Chloe did. In fact  _nobody_  knew Beca like Chloe did.

The two women stood in silence as Chloe brought her hands down from Beca’s hair and gave her a soft smile. Beca was certain that if Chloe hadn’t told her that hearing her confession of love had been weird, then the brunette would’ve kissed her by now. After all, this was the perfect moment. They were alone. Stood close. Their eyes locked as though trying to read what the other was thinking. But Beca  _couldn’t_  kiss Chloe.

“You look amazing Becs.” Chloe said in a volume that was just over a whisper, smiling softly at her best friend.

“Yeah, well I don’t  _feel_  amazing. I feel..terrified!” Beca sighed with a shrug, raising her eyebrows at her best friend as she said the final word. And Chloe was certain she’d felt her heart skip a beat. She never took moments like this for granted. The moments when Beca was unapologetically herself. Vulnerable and raw. This was the side of Beca that was reserved for Chloe and Chloe only. And Chloe felt privileged.

So she reached out and held Beca’s arms that were by the petite woman’s side, giving them an encouraging squeeze while she beamed at her best friend, “Beca, you’re gonna be aca-awesome. And you know how I know?”

Beca shook her head gently, then swallowed nervously when Chloe leant her face closer to hers and whispered, “Because you’re you. And I  _know_  how amazing you are.”

Chloe had never been great with maintaining personal space, and Beca’s mind quickly flickered back to her freshman year, back when she’d barely known the redhead but had had to endure the older woman leaning close to her face like this to say things to her, especially when drunk. Back then Beca had usually backed away or at least acted awkwardly. Seven years on and Beca now craved those moments, having fallen in mad unrequited love with the girl. But not for much longer.

Beca had decided when this tour was over she would pour everything into this new solo career and try to push aside all these feelings she had for Chloe. It would be difficult, but for both of their sakes she needed to try.

For now though she happily allowed Chloe to throw her arms around her waist and pull her into a tight hug. Beca had to hand it to the redhead, Chloe had been right when she’d said that they were okay. It was as though Beca hadn’t confessed her undying love for her at all. And Beca wrapped her arms around Chloe’s neck, holding her tight, and whispering a small “thank you” which caused a light giggle to fall out of the redhead’s mouth.

Chloe closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. This was it. As of tomorrow everything would be different. She hated it, but she’d decided, tomorrow she would start the next chapter in her life. The one where she’d be trying to move on from the unrequited romantic feelings she had for Beca.

Her stomach dropped when she heard Theo’s voice at the door of the dressing room say, “You ready Beca? You’re on in 5” and Chloe felt her best friend unwind her arms from around her neck. Beca cleared her throat nervously, and Chloe reluctantly let Beca go, turning to see Theo and Chicago stood in the doorway. That knot of jealous had started to form again at the sigh of the guy that looked similar to Jesse. The guy Chloe had presumed Beca had started seeing.

“Uh, yeah, I guess..” came the Beca’s response, and the two women turned to look at each other with coy smiles.

“What, no selfie?” Beca asked Chloe, raising her eyebrows in surprise and Chloe shook her head gently with a giggle.

“My phone’s back at the hotel on charge.”

“You  _do_  realise you had all day to do that right?” Beca teased with a furrowed brow and a grin, and Chloe’s heart soared, because she realised she may have helped Beca calm down slightly.

“Yeah buuut I kinda forgot to plug the cord in properly sooooo..”

Beca rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly but kept an affectionate smile on her face, muttering, “What am I gonna do with you huh?” And when she saw Chloe shrug, Beca gave the girl a wink and added, “Never change, Beale.”

The two men at the door cleared their throats nervously, both having developed crushes on their respective women inside the room.

“Oh..right..I’d better go find the Bellas and we’d better find our seats!” Chloe said excitably.

Beca froze as she watched Chloe lean forward and place an affectionate kiss on her cheek, “Good luck babe!” she mumbled then stepped back from Beca.

The brunette watched as Chloe walked out of the dressing room, glancing one last time at Beca with a smile before leaving with Chicago. Beca took one last nervous look at her reflection in the mirror, took a deep breath, then made her way out of the dressing room with Theo, ready to go on stage and perform for the first time as a solo artist.


	19. The Hug

Beca sang the final note of the song then let out a huge sigh of relief. It had been her absolute honour and joy to share the stage with her best friends. To get The Bellas up on stage to sing parts of ‘Freedom 90’ with her to a large crowd as the warm up before DJ Khaled’s set on the final night of their USO tour.

She looked out at the audience who all whooped and cheered, and Beca suddenly became overcome with emotion. This was it. Her final performance with The Bellas before she started her solo career. And the brunette turned on the spot to join her best friends.

Her eyes immediately found Chloe’s proud smile and a grin burst onto Beca’s face when she saw the redhead fling her arms open while striding towards her. Beca felt a surge of adrenaline rocket through her body as she dashed into her best friend’s arms, and the two women held each other tight, their eyes closed. Their grins broadened when they felt the rest of the Bellas join them in a group hug.

“I’m so proud of you!” Chloe mumbled into Beca’s ear and that was it, that was all that was needed to cause tears to fall from the petite brunette’s eyes. Beca clung to Chloe all the more tighter when she felt the Bellas peeling from around them one by one. Because there was no telling when they’d have another opportunity to hug like this again. And although Beca had told herself that she would start the process of ‘getting over Chloe’ the moment she’d finished her first performance, she was still reluctant to start just now..

They did part eventually of course, and as Beca wiped the tears from her cheeks she beamed at the audience who cheered herself and her best friends on. Amy held Beca’s arm up in the air like she was announcing the winner of a boxing game. But the brunette was somewhat occupied by the feel of Chloe who had thrown her right arm around Beca’s shoulders and was busy pointing enthusiastically at the woman while looking out at the audience, encouraging their cheers.

To say Chloe was proud was an understatement. Beca had come so far since Chloe had first seen her perform back at Barden University. Seven years ago. When she’d auditioned for the Bellas. Beca had been talented even back then - using Chloe’s yellow cup that had been serving as a pen pot as a form of clever beat while she sang.

Chloe had been as mesmerised by Beca’s performance tonight as she had done back then, her heart hammering against her chest while she’d been watching from her seated position beside Chicago, her heart skipping a beat each time Beca looked at her with a smile. The smile that Chloe simply adored..

A couple more group hugs and the Bellas were guided offstage to their seats on the front row, ready for DJ Khaled’s performance. Chloe had grabbed Beca’s hand while they’d walked off the stage and Beca hadn’t objected, though she’d still felt her heart yearn for the redhead whenever Chloe looked over her shoulder at her. Shooting her that beautiful Beale smile. But Beca had come to realise just how good it was of Chloe to treat her how she’d always treated her instead of making things weird.

Chloe had reached out for Beca’s hand on impulse as they’d left the stage. They were rarely apart those two, and Chloe was so overwhelmed with emotion that it was their last performance all together that she had wanted to ensure that Beca wasn’t separated from them too soon. This was  _their_  final night all together.

Chloe had had to release Beca’s hand when they all went to sit down. Their seats were apart: Chloe’s still beside Chicago, and Beca’s at the other end beside Theo.

On occasion, during Khaled’s set, Beca had leant forward, looking across all the Bellas to see how much Chloe was enjoying the music. And her stomach had twisted a little when she’d seen Chloe chatting and smiling and laughing with Chicago. So Beca would instead entertain Theo’s nudges and grins and comments about how awesome Khaled was and how awesome Beca will be when she’s recorded some of her own music.

Unbeknownst to Beca, Chloe had been looking past the Bellas at intervals, noticing the way Beca was smiling and nodding while Theo spoke to her during Khaled’s performance. That was it. Beca was moving on. Theo and the record label would be Beca’s new priority, something that was already beginning to show. And with a deep breath of ‘fresh air’ Chloe forced a smile onto her face, and leant into Chicago slightly. The man took her hand, and Chloe noted how large it felt around hers. But she looked up at him. Saw how he smiled kindly at her and the way his eyes seemed to twinkle. And Chloe thought that really, if she  _were_  to find someone to move on from her crazy ‘Beca crush’ with, Chicago wasn’t exactly the worst candidate..


	20. The Kiss

Beca strode into the suite she and Chloe were sharing at the hotel. She’d barely made it a foot inside before she began tugging the gold jacket from around her body, letting out a sigh of relief because the outfit had been so uncomfortable. She wandered over to the huge bed at the other end of the suite and perched on the edge of it so she could ease her boots off.

With one final heavy exhale she threw the uncomfortable footwear across the room and fell back onto the bed. Her eyes darted about the ceiling as images from her memory flashed up on the surface of it.

Chloe had  _kissed_  Chicago. She hadn’t exactly seen her best friend approach the man so she couldn’t be sure if it had been a spur of the moment thing or done with a purposeful stride, but by the time Beca had casually wandered past and had slowed to a stop to look, the two were in the flow of a kiss. Beca could remember the way her stomach had knotted with jealousy again. Because it had been the final confirmation she’d needed. Chloe really  _didn’t_  have feelings for her. And Beca needed to move on.

So she had stood there, her arms folded, letting out a slight groan of disappointment while she watched Chicago dip Chloe into a deeper kiss. Because Beca knew it had been Chloe’s dream to be kissed romantically like that. The redhead had mentioned it several times during the moments they’d watched romcoms on Netflix together.

Theo had arrived, and Beca had grimaced when he’d suggested they should maybe kiss too. Because there was something a little creepy about the dude, Beca wasn’t big on kissing - especially when she barely knew the person - and no matter how difficult the reality of having to ‘get over’ Chloe was, that didn’t necessarily mean she should start kissing people to try to feel better.

She’d managed to walk away from Chloe and Chicago before her best friend had seen her there, but Chloe had found her and the rest of The Bellas shortly after, a beaming smile on her face that Beca wished she’d been the cause of. They’d all been invited to an after-party to celebrate the end of the USO tour and though the Bellas had agreed that they didn’t feel like they needed to change out of their current outfits, Beca had announced she needed to pop back to the hotel to change out of hers. It had been so uncomfortable.

Chloe had grabbed her arm as she’d turned to leave, asking if she would mind picking her phone up for her and bringing it back down to the party, which Beca had agreed she would do.

So that’s where Beca was now, laid back on the large bed, sighing sadly as she tried to push aside that feeling of jealousy she’d experienced when she’d watched Chloe thank her then walk over to Chicago. The brunette sat up, tugging gently at the hair clips that had been holding her hair back. No, she wouldn’t let this  _minor_  set-back stop her from having a nice final night with her best friends. They were her  _family_  and they would soon all be separated again once they returned to America tomorrow. She needed to make the most of her time with them.

Beca stood up, running her fingers through her long brown hair that was now free from any clips, and she glanced over her shoulder at Chloe’s phone that lay on the bedside table on the redhead’s ‘usual’ side of the bed.

-

Chloe stood beside Chicago, a soft smile on her face while she listened to the soldier telling a funny story to Emily, Cynthia-Rose, and Flo. The redhead watched as the man explained it with animated expressions and an excitable tone and Chloe had to admit, she was liking him more and more as the time went on.

Aubrey, meanwhile, was stood with Fat Amy at the bar, having just been handed a drink each by Aubrey’s father before he popped across the room to speak to an old friend. The older blonde found her eyes drifting over to Chloe and she smiled gently when she saw the look on her friend’s face. The redhead  _did_  look genuinely happy.

“I still can’t believe she turned Beca down..” Fat Amy muttered to Aubrey with a slow shake of her head as she also looked over at Chloe with Chicago and some other Bellas.

Aubrey furrowed her brow, “Huh? Wha-…what are you talking about?” And she turned to Amy who looked back at her, raising her eyebrows.

“You didn’t know?”

“Know what??” Aubrey insisted, her mouth open in shock while Amy leant a little closer to her, as though sharing a secret.

“When we were on our way to rescue you guys Beca called Chloe and left her a voicemail telling her she loved her. Chloe heard the message the next morning but told Beca it was weird.” Aubrey’s mouth remained open, stunned that Beca had finally found the balls to tell Chloe, and just as stunned that Chloe hadn’t told Beca she reciprocated those feelings. Because Aubrey knew Chloe. And she knew Chloe  _did_  feel the same way about Beca. She…she  _had_  to!

The two blondes turned to see Beca wander over to Chloe, now in a completely new outfit. Her usual look of skinny black jeans, and a dark blue top that hugged her figure in all the right places, her hair now long and in loose waves, flowing down her back and over her shoulders, red lipstick now tainting her lips. And Aubrey saw the way Chloe looked at her. Saw the way the redhead’s eyes inspected the petite brunette’s body. Saw the way Chloe’s jaw had dropped slightly. And Aubrey still struggled to work out  _why_  Chloe had turned Beca down when she still looked at her like that..

They watched as Beca handed Chloe her phone, then wandered over to the bar to join them instead of standing with Chloe as she normally would do.

“Hey guys.” Beca breathed out, putting her hands in her back pockets and forcing an awkward smile on her face, “What you drinking?”

“Uh,” Aubrey said, standing up straight and reaching for her purse, “let me get you a drink Beca!” she said as she pulled out some money. She felt awful for the brunette. Poor Beca. The woman who rarely wore her heart on her sleeve, confessing her most biggest secret to the woman she loved only to have it turned down. “We’re having this cocktail thingy? Quite strong but sweet though..” she knew Beca wasn’t one for sweet drinks, but to her surprise Beca shrugged.

“I’ll take one of them.” Beca replied with a nod, and Aubrey turned to the barman to order one for her.

-

Chloe looked at her phone, relieved to finally have it back with her again, and she smiled as she saw she had a missed call and a voicemail from her Mom. So the redhead brought the phone up to her ear, increasing the volume so she could hear the message over the sound of the low music of the after party. But it was no good. The room was too noisy.

So Chloe paused the recording, waited for a break in Chicago’s story, then squeezed his upper arm to gain his attention. She leant towards his ear and said clearly, “I’ve got a missed call from my Mom. Just got to step outside.”

Chicago nodded at her, giving her a kind smile that Chloe reciprocated sweetly, then the redhead wandered out of the room, taking one last glance at the man who was watching her go. Chloe couldn’t help feeling a little unusual whenever she looked at him. As though whatever this was between them had all happened so fast that she didn’t even know what to think yet. But she certainly didn’t feel unhappy. Which was nice.

Once out of the room, through the reception area of the venue, and out into the fresh air, Chloe brought her phone back up to her ear and smiled as she heard her mother’s bright voice down the phone.

_“Hi sweetheart, only me. I think you mentioned something about today being the day you might find out about Vet School? So I was just calling to see how you were, whether you’d heard any news, and to see how your tour was. I can’t remember when you said you get back from Europe but I hope it’s been everything you’d hoped it would be and more. Call me whenever you’re free to darling. Oh and send my love to Beca and the girls! Lots of love!”_

Chloe let out a soft sigh, a smile on her face as the message ended and she pulled her phone from her ear. She looked over her shoulder to see Chicago walking out of the doors and slowly down to her, a soft smile on his face too.

“Everything okay?” He asked kindly and Chloe nodded.

“Yeah she was just-“ but as Chloe looked down at her phone screen and looked at her voicemail list she realised she’d forgotten to listen to the other voicemail that Beca had left her last night. The one that had been left about an hour after the first one.

“What is it?” she heard Chicago ask cautiously, and Chloe knew why his tone was like that. Because she could  _feel_  how confused her expression probably was. Why had Beca left her a second voicemail? What could it have possibly said?

“Yeah um..it’s just Beca left me a couple of voicemails last night and…I only listened…to…one.” she said slowly, furrowing her brow while pressing the missed voicemail and holding her phone up to her ear. She looked at Chicago who also seemed to be furrowing his brow in concern.

The first few seconds of the message was silent and Chloe wondered if Beca had even meant to call her at all. But the second Beca’s voice sounded down the phone from the message, Chloe seemed to zone out. Because Beca’s tone was far more nervous than she’d  _ever_  heard it before.

_“Um..hey..uh..it’s me. Beca. Which you already know because you probably saw my name on the screen when you pressed play..”_

Chloe smiled gently at how awkward Beca was being. She could almost hear her best friend’s eyes rolling down the phone.

_“Ugh..I’m sorry I’m being so shit with these messages.. I’m just nervous.”_

Chloe swallowed loudly. Why was Beca nervous? She’d had no reason to be. Well..she probably had every reason to be nervous going with Fat Amy on a rescue mission but that was no reason to leave a voicemail when she’d already sent Chloe a text.

_“Which is stupid because it’s only you. Not..I didnt mean..”_

Chloe heard Beca sigh and for a moment the redhead’s smile wavered.

_“..I didn’t mean that you’re only you..I meant..”_

There was that sigh again and Chloe swallowed loudly, looking up at Chicago’s concerned expression while there was a pause down the phone. What had been going on with Beca when she’d left this message??  _Why_  had she left this message?

_“Okay..here’s the thing..I don’t know what’s gonna happen tonight. But from what Amy’s been telling me things could go bad. And if they do..and you make it but I don’t..”_

Chloe hesitated, looking past Chicago’s arm and out into the distance as she heard her best friend pause again. If she didn’t know any better this message could quite easily be misconstrued as a message from one lover to another. And Chloe’s heart skipped a beat when she heard Beca swallow loudly.

_“I just wanted you to know that…”_

Another pause and Chloe shuffled her feet for a moment, holding her phone as close to her ear as possible, and holding her breath for fear that she would miss what Beca was about to say. Hoping beyond all hope that there might be the teeniest of chances that Beca might tell her she loved her. Probably not. But..but maybe? Like maybe this was her dying farewell or something..

_“I like you.”_

Chloe’s heart hit her chest hard with an almighty thud at the sound of those words that her best friend said.

_“Like really like you.”_

Her best friend who Chloe had had a crush on for seven years. Seven whole excruciating, beautiful, heartbreaking, heartmaking years.

_“I’ve liked you for a long time now..”_

This was everything Chloe had ever dreamt of hearing Beca say, and suddenly tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.

_“and I know I should’ve told you sooner..and that I’m an idiot for not telling you before now. But..”_

There was another sigh that fell out of Beca’s mouth but Chloe didn’t care. Her heart was now racing as elation began to steam through her body. Beca  _liked_ her!!!

_“..if this is one of the last things you hear me tell you then I’m okay with that.”_

Oh God. It  _hadn’t_  been the last thing Chloe heard Beca say to her. Far from it. And Chloe felt a twist of guilt as she remembered how sad Beca had looked when they’d chatted on the Rescue Boat. Ugh Chloe had called Beca’s message  _weird_! Chloe had meant the first message (the only message she’d heard at the time), but clearly Beca must have thought she’d meant the second message. This message. The one that Chloe was finally listening to now, almost 24hrs later!

_“Because I love you..”_

Chloe let out a small cry of disbelief, sniffing loudly as a tear fell from one of her eyes, and she looked up at Chicago. Beca  _loved_  her!

_“aaand..I’m gonna have to end this message now because we’re about to reach the boat. But I’m gonna find you and..I’m gonna-“_

_“-kiss you!”_

Chloe heard Amy chime in, and a small smile bounced onto the redhead’s face beyond the tears that had started to roll down her cheeks. She continued to listen as she heard Beca tell their best friend off.

_“Dude I’m not gonna kiss her!”_

_“But you said you love her!”_

_“I know but..that doesn’t mean I’m gonna jump on her the second I see her!!”_

Chloe giggled gently at the bickering between her two friends on the voicemail message, then suddenly she froze as the message cut out and Beca evidently ran out of time. Or signal.

The woman felt numb and she let her arm drop to her side. Stunned. The look on Chicago’s face told her that he’d realised just what Beca had said in that message to Chloe, but the redhead held the phone out to him all the same, to give him the opportunity to listen to it for himself.

-

Beca felt her stomach churn as she watched Chloe step up on her tiptoes and mumble something into Chicago’s ear. A smile was on the man’s face as he nodded at Chloe. Then Beca had to watch as her best friend - the girl who she’d confessed her love to only to have it thrown back in her face - walk out of the room, taking the opportunity to glance at the soldier one last time before leaving.

“Here” Aubrey said, having clearly seen the goings on from their position at the bar and holding her own cocktail out at Beca, recognising that the brunette might need a drink quicker than it took for the barman to make the one she’d just ordered.

Beca took the cocktail and knocked it back in one. Yeah it had been sweet, but it was just the kick the petite woman had needed. She needed to get wasted tonight. To forget everything. To forget that Chloe had found her confession ‘weird’.

“Uhh..actually, bartender? Better make that two..” Amy said as she watched her best friend with concern while holding a hand up to the bartender who had just placed a fresh cocktail in front of them. The three women looked over at Chicago while the man seemed to make his apologies then walk out of the room after Chloe.

Beca felt her stomach knot. Shit. Chloe had clearly told him to give it a couple of minutes before going to find her. The brunette groaned under her breath and turned to grab the new cocktail, taking a big swig of it before looking down miserably into the questionably colourful alcoholic mix, trying her hardest not to think about her best friend making out with the soldier.

Aubrey and Amy looked from their unhappy friend to one another, knowing exactly why Beca was so upset. They turned to see their fellow Bellas approaching, looking at Beca curiously.

“What’s going on?” Cynthia-Rose asked tentatively with a furrowed brow, Emily and Flo stood either side of her, Jessica and Ashley approaching from behind Amy, Lily popping up behind Aubrey.

Beca forced a smile on her face while she turned to her friends, “Nothing! It..it’s nothing.” and she took another long swig of the sweet cocktail. But Amy wasn’t going to let that excuse run.

“Beca told Chloe she was in love with her.” The Australian said quickly, and the faces of the Bellas that hadn’t known about this news lit up. But their joy was short-lived when Beca held her hand up to try to get them to calm down.

“Don’t-…she…Beca said sharply, letting out a sigh before continuing in a disappointed voice, “…she doesn’t feel the same way.”

“Huh??” CR said, her smile immediately dropping to a confused expression. An expression that seemed to match that of all the other Bellas save for Amy, Aubrey and Beca.

“What do you mean she doesn’t feel the same way??” Emily asked, and the friends all nodded while they looked intently at Beca, desperate to know more.

Beca shrugged, “She said it was weird. So…” she took another large swig of the cocktail, “…let’s just..not make things awkward. Let’s just enjoy our final night all together yeah?” And she finished the cocktail and placed the glass down with a slightly heavier thud than before.

The Bellas all looked at one another with worried expressions and Beca hated the way they all turned to look at her sympathetically. She didn’t want sympathy. She just wanted things to go back to normal again.

So with a sigh, Beca began to push between them, “I’m going to the bathroom..” she mumbled, and stormed off to the back of the room where the bathrooms were.

-

Chicago cleared his throat, then swallowed loudly as the voicemail ended and he handed the phone back to the woman stood before him, “What are you still doing here Chloe?” He asked quietly with a small shake of his head.

Chloe hesitated, looking up at the soldier as she took her phone and twiddled it nervously between her fingers. Her body felt numb, still stunned by the recent revelation. That Beca loved her. She  _loved_  her!

“I-I..don’t..” she began, but Chicago gave her a kind smile.

“You’ve just found out the woman you’ve had a crush on for years is in love with you,” He said softly, and hearing it being put so plainly made butterflies race around Chloe’s stomach. “and you’re stood outside here with me instead of inside there with her.”

Chloe swallowed loudly, looking down at her phone, at the photo which was on her home screen - the selfie she took of herself and Beca last month when they’d gone for a celebratory meal at a beautiful rooftop restaurant to mark the brunette’s anniversary at BFD records. She knew Beca had the same photo on her own phone home screen, and Chloe had always presumed Beca had done it because Chloe had suggested it would make a nice background, not because Beca actually had  _feelings_  for her!

“I’ll be okay Chloe,” Chicago said kindly, reaching out and smoothing his hands from her shoulders down to her elbows then giving them a gentle squeeze while the woman looked up at him again, “I’ve got my family here, remember? Now go find yours.”

A small smile grew on Chloe’s face and she let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding, “Okay,” she said finally, “thank you Chicago.” And she wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him tight, giving him a goodbye hug.

They parted and Chicago gave Chloe a wink and a grin before watching her dash back inside.

-

“Where’s Beca??” Chloe immediately asked, looking around the Bellas who she’d just approached by the bar, noticing that her best friend was missing. Her heart was racing. She’d had no plan of what she was going to say to Beca. She wanted to apologise. She wanted to find out what was really going on between her and Theo. To her surprise, her friends turned to look at her and all looked unimpressed.

“What the hell Chloe?” Aubrey exclaimed, her brow furrowed, and only half a cocktail remaining in her hand as she looked at the redhead in disbelief.

“Beca tells you she loves you and you turn her down??” Emily squeaked, still evidently in shock.

Chloe’s jaw dropped as she looked around at the stunned expressions on her friends faces. How did they know?  _She’d_  only just found out herself. And technically she  _hadn’t_  turned Beca down. 

“How-?”

“Beca told us that you’d said it was weird!” Fat Amy interrupted, looking decidedly pissed off that Beca was hurting thanks to the one person none of The Bellas had expected it from. Chloe.

Chloe, however, was confused. She’d  _never_  dream of telling Beca that her being in love with her was weird. Definitely not. She’d find it wonderful and brilliant, after all it was everything she’d ever wanted. And her heart plummeted when she realised that that must have been exactly what Beca had thought about this whole misunderstanding. 

The redhead held her hands up in defence, tears beginning to taint her eyes again as she tried to explain as quickly as possible so they would tell her where Beca was, “Guys, Beca had told me she loved me in a voicemail that I only just heard!” but to her horror Amy seemed to scoff, as though she didn’t believe her, and the other Bellas looked uncertain, “I’m  _serious_! Why the  _hell_  would I tell Beca it was weird her being in love with me when I’ve been in love with  _her_  for years!”

And Chloe sucked in a deep intake of breath when she realised it was the first time she’d admitted it out loud. She loved Beca. She was  _in love_  with Beca. And a tear rolled down her cheek when she looked around at the Bellas, her eyes finally landing on Aubrey who had known all about Chloe’s crush back in college so didn’t seem so surprised that Chloe was now very much in love with the woman she’d been sharing a fold-out bed with over the past couple of years.

“She’s gone to the bathroom.” Aubrey said in a quiet voice, nodding her head towards the back of the room where the bathrooms were. Her heart leapt a little when she saw Chloe immediately turn on the spot and dash away from the Bellas, heading straight for the bathrooms. The blonde turned to her friends, who all looked to her and Amy. And without saying anything more the group all headed off to the bathrooms too, to see (or at least hear) how the hell Beca and Chloe were possibly going to clear up this misunderstanding.

-

Beca stood with her hands on the edge of the bathroom’s sink, staring at her reflection and taking a deep shaky breath. Everything was going to be okay. This was all going to blow over. She’d move to LA to get away from it all. Start her music career. Distance herself from Chloe and the rest of the Bellas. See them on holidays or whenever. Forget the crushing heartache that was plaguing her body right now. And at the recognition of how shit she felt, Beca hung her head and began to quietly cry.

Chloe didn’t slow as she reached the door of the bathrooms, and tumbled through it, her heart racing, her lungs heaving she was so nervous and afraid and excited. And the only words that rang around in her head were the ones that Beca had said in that voicemail: “ _Because I love you…”_

Beca jumped when she heard the door to the bathrooms slam open and she sniffed suddenly, trying to compose herself, ready to dash into one of the cubical’s if she had to. But her heart jumped into her throat when she turned her body to see that Chloe had rounded the small corner from the door of the bathrooms around to the main body of the facilities, and had stopped somewhat breathlessly before her. The brunette noticed the way tears were rolling down Chloe’s cheeks and Beca swallowed loudly, wiping her own and taking a deep breath.

“I didn’t get your second voicemail.” Chloe burst out quickly, sniffing. Her body felt pumped with adrenaline, her stomach rolling with desire. A desire to throw her arms around her best friend and kiss her for all she was worth. But she needed to explain first. “The battery on my phone died before I got a chance to listen to your second message.” 

Beca found herself swallowing loudly again, her heart suddenly leaping with joy as she began processing what this meant. What Chloe might be doing in here now, in tears, rather than out there with Chicago. 

“So when I said your message had been weird I’d meant your first message - because you’d said the word weird so many times!” And a small smile grew on Beca’s face as Chloe’s eyebrows rose, her tone becoming softer and a little less desperate, clearly relieved to be able to explain what she’d meant. 

“I only just heard your second message now, Beca.” Chloe began slowly walking towards her best friend who was currently frozen to the spot, “Outside.” and Chloe stopped just before Beca, taking a deep breath, “I only just found out you love me.” 

Beca swallowed loudly again, relieved that Chloe wasn’t running away. The two best friends stood in front of one another with soft smiles on their faces. Both were nervous, but equally excited. And Chloe found her eyes drifting down to the woman’s lips, her heart skipping a beat when she noted how beautiful they were when she wore red lipstick. 

Beca meanwhile had become absorbed by those bright blue eyes of Chloe’s. The eyes she adored getting lost in. The eyes she watched drifting down to her lips, then slowly back up again. And Chloe took another deep breath, her smile broadening while she said confidently, “Beca, I love you too.”

Well they were really all the words Beca needed to hear. The brunette burst into a broad beaming smile before throwing her arms around Chloe’s neck and smashing her lips onto hers, kissing her firmly. Chloe felt her body go numb as she wrapped her own arms around Beca’s small waist, pulling her tight against her body as they shared their first kiss. And within seconds tears had begun falling from the best friends’ closed eyes again, both women so full of love and desire for the other. Both so relieved to finally be together in the way they had so desperately wanted to be for years. 

The Bellas all smiled, gathered quietly in the doorway of the bathroom, peering around the corner into the main body of the room. Not one pair of eyes were dry. And Aubrey and Amy glanced at one another with smiles on their faces before looking back at Beca and Chloe while the two best friends  _finally_  made out with one another after so many years of strained sexual tension.

Beca noted how soft Chloe’s lips felt as she captured them again and again with each kiss they shared, her fingers tangled in her long red hair, “I adore you” she mumbled against her best friend’s lips before she kissed her again. This was it. Chloe. Chloe was it. The one. Beca couldn’t  _ever_  imagine being with anyone else ever again. Chloe was her best friend. Her soulmate. Her person. Her everything.

Chloe noted how perfect it felt to be able to hold Beca in this way. To run her tongue experimentally across Beca’s bottom lip, then sigh in relief as the brunette parted her lips to deepen their kiss. Loving the way Beca pulled her fingers from her red hair and cupped her cheeks instead. This was it. Beca. Beca was it. The one. Chloe couldn’t  _ever_  imagine being with anyone else ever again. Beca was her best friend. Her soulmate. Her person. Her everything.

“I love you so much Beca Mitchell..” she mumbled when she broke their kiss for a moment, looking into Beca’s watery eyes, and they both let out small giggles as Beca affectionately nudged the tip of her nose with the tip of her own nose, replying with a quiet, “I love you so much too Chloe Beale..”

This certainly was the best possible end to a very eventful week on their USO tour, and the Bellas all let out happy sighs as they watched Beca and Chloe resume their kissing. But no two Bellas were happier than Beca and Chloe, who both promised to themselves that they would devote their lives to the other, forevermore..

 

 


	21. The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five Years Later...

Chloe smiled sweetly as she scooped the small poorly dog up off the table in her examination room, placed an affectionate kiss on ‘Milo’s’ little head, and handed him back to his owner.

“A couple of weeks worth of antibiotics and Milo should be back to his usual tricks again!” Chloe said in a bright voice and Mrs Henderson, Milo’s owner, thanked her in a relieved tone, before stepping out of the room to head for the reception desk.

The redhead let out a content sigh, walking over to her desk in the corner of the beautiful room and sitting on her comfy office-style chair. She loved her job! She’d been working at this veterinary practice for just over three weeks now and still couldn’t get over how lucky she was. This was one of the highest regarded Vet Practices in LA and Chloe had worked hard at Vet School over the past five years to get the highest of credentials just so she could get her pick of the bunch when it came to jobs as a ‘newly qualified’ Vet.

A knock was sounded at the door and Chloe let out a distracted “Come in!” while she typed up her findings from Milo the Dog’s appointment onto the Practice’s computer system. She noticed out of the corner of her eye someone step slightly into the room.

The team at this Practice were all lovely, but Chloe still kept her private life very private, something that her colleagues found very odd. There was no doubting that she was a very good newly qualified vet - her grades and recommendations from the  _UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine_ were proof of that - and she was one of the kindest most bubbliest people they had ever met. But the team couldn’t quite work out  _how_  Chloe was able to afford the beautiful new car that she owned, or why she never weighed in on ‘money conversations’, particularly after five years of crippling college debt. And she was earning less than a lot of them thanks to her ‘newly qualified’ status.

Someone had tried to ask her about her parents, to find out if she had come from money. But when she’d told them that she didn’t have the  _greatest_  of relationships with her parents and hadn’t done since she was a teen, the colleagues had all hit a dead-end. Chloe Mitchell was a complete mystery.

“Hey, uh, Chloe?” the young man at the door said nervously, and Chloe looked over at him with a kind smile on her face. Dan, the veterinary assistant who seemed to have been on every shift with her since she had started, and had been kind enough to show her the ropes around here. Well, the basics anyway. When it came to the actual assessment of the animals that was all down to her. “I-I was thinking, as your car was towed this morning, I could always give you a lift home if you wanted?”

Chloe’s beautiful new car had been reversed into by a customer, screwing the engine up and causing the driver of the offending vehicle to become very shaken. The redhead had heard how poor little Mrs Tompkins had accidentally left her catbox undone and as a consequence ‘Tibbles’ the cat had escaped in the car and freaked out - causing the elderly lady to panic and accidentally reverse her car into Chloe’s. The second Chloe had heard the woman’s story, she had assured Mrs Tompkins not to worry about her nice new car, and had instead paid for a mechanic to take both cars, as well as paying for the elderly lady’s cab ride home.

“Oh, that’s really kind of you Dan, but I’ve already organised a lift home. Thank you though.” Chloe said with a sweet smile, turning back to her computer screen and clicking a few buttons to print out a document. Relieved that it was almost the end of her working day.

“Um..I was also wondering if maybe you wanted to go on a double date or something?” Dan asked nervously. Because he’d been crushing hard on the beautiful new Vet. He’d told his brother all about Chloe, and his brother had suggested Dan just ask her out. Even if it  _was_  a double date with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend.

Chloe reached down under her desk and pulled out the freshly printed document, scrawling her signature on a couple of sections, her designer reading glasses sliding down to the tip of her nose as she said slowly, casually, “I’ll have to check with my wife but I can’t see why not..” and Chloe signed one final section then began collecting Milo’s little file together, sliding the new paperwork into the front of it as per the Practice Policy.

“Oh..” Dan said awkwardly, having never heard Chloe mention anything about a partner of any form before. Let alone a woman. Let alone a  _wife_! “Um okay well..uh..let me know!”

“Okay.” Chloe said with a kind smile, holding the file out to the young man, “This is Milo’s file. If you wouldn’t mind taking it out to reception and handing the top note to Mrs Henderson that’d be great.”

Dan nodded, stepping up to the vet, taking the file from her hands, then leaving the assessment room, closing the door behind him with a furrowed brow. Chloe, meanwhile, turned back to the computer in front of her and decided to do one last check of her emails before hometime.

The young man wandered through to the reception area of the Veterinary Practice, not taking any notice of the few customers who were sat in the waiting area, and calling out for Mrs Henderson who was already conveniently stood at the reception desk. He handed her the top note from Milo’s notes, as per Chloe’s instruction, and the old woman thanked him then turned to leave the Practice.

Dan strode to the ‘filing room’ to the side of the reception desk and no sooner had he done so, the receptionist, Emilia - a sweet girl in her late teens - darted in after him, whispering in a low voice, “Dan!!” and he turned to find out why she sounded so excited, “ _BECA_ ’s in the waiting room!!”

“B-Beca? Like… _the_   _BECA_?” Dan stuttered in surprise.

“Yes!!  _The_   _BECA_! I swear it’s her!!”

Dan felt his hands go a bit clammy with nerves.  _BECA_  was one of the biggest recording artists around. She’d shot to fame around four or five years ago, and was still going, having won an Oscar at the beginning of the year for  _Best Original Song_ and was due to drop a new record any day now. It was one of the most highly anticipated records of the year.

They had famous people in from time to time, after all they were one of the most highly-regarded Veterinary Practices in LA. But nobody as famous as  _BECA_.

Beca Mitchell sat in the waiting area of the plush veterinary practice. This was her first visit here and she had to admit, it was as beautiful and swanky as Chloe had described and the photos on their website had boasted. She had to admit, she’d been surprised when her wife had called her earlier to let her know that her car had been reversed into in the Practice’s car park. And though she’d felt angry at first, tempted to stubbornly tell Chloe to ensure that the perpetrator paid for the repair of the new BMW as punishment for their reckless behaviour, the brunette’s temperament had softened when Chloe had told her the story behind the accident. She didn’t argue when her wife said that they’d be paying for the damages and repair instead of the little old lady who was shaken up by the whole ordeal - after all, they could afford it. The perk of Beca being a multi-million dollar, award winning recording artist. And the wonder of how kind-hearted Chloe was.

Beca grinned to herself as she looked down at her hands. At her engagement and wedding ring on her finger. And her mind flickered back to a few weeks ago when they had got quickly engaged and married.

To many it would seem like a shotgun wedding because it had just been spontaneous. Beca and Chloe had been together for five years, and known each other for twelve. If that wasn’t warrant enough for marriage then Beca didn’t know what was.

The two women had been on vacation with their best friends in Mexico - Beca having treated The Bellas to a luxurious seven day trip to celebrate Chloe’s graduation, and five years since she and Chloe had finally got together. And the first morning of the vacation, when Beca and Chloe had woken up blissfully in one another’s arms, Beca had suggested they get married that week. Because they’d had to wait long enough for Chloe to finish Vet School, and all the people they’d want at their wedding were there with them already.

And Chloe had excitably said yes, before crying then making out heavily with Beca. Until they were interrupted by Fat Amy who had barged into their room to use their bathroom, claiming that she’d already blocked her toilet so had to use theirs.

The wedding had been expensive but perfect, and money had been no object for the petite multi-millionaire who had honestly just wanted to give the love of her life the most wonderful, most memorable day ever. And it had been. Aubrey had walked Chloe down the aisle to Beca, with five year old Bella leading the way as ‘flower girl’. Beca and Chloe had returned to their LA home after that week away as Mrs&Mrs, and Beca couldn’t be happier.

After their USO tour - having finally cleared up the misunderstanding that they both  _were_  in fact very much in love with each other, and spending a wonderful final evening with the Bellas at the after party, followed by a hot exploratory night between the two best friends in their shared hotel suite - Beca and Chloe had returned to their stuffy little studio apartment very much openly in love.

They had moved over to LA when Beca had read through, amended the small details, and signed her recording contract. Then Chloe had moved up to Vet School in Davis, trying her hardest not to pine for her girlfriend while she was away during the semester, and making the most of their time together during the holidays and Spring/Summer Breaks. Beca had chosen to record and perform under the name  _BECA_  to try to conserve some form of privacy for her girlfriend, and fortunately nobody had seemed to pick up on how Chloe would often be  _BECA_ ’s ‘plus one’ at red carpet events. It had been noted that they were best friends, but  _BECA_ ’s music videos had all been so heterosexual that nobody ever queried whether the redhead was in fact  _BECA_ ’s lover. Which worked just fine for the two women.

Beca had been at Chloe’s graduation of course, as had the rest of The Bellas, all so proud of the high scores Chloe had achieved, placing her top of her class. And it was reunions like that that fuelled the women’s strong bond. Because they were more than friends. They were  _family_. And they all loved and supported one another no matter what.

“Excuse me.” Came a tentative voice and Beca looked up to see a young man in his early to mid-twenties, looking at her with a nervous expression. She knew that expression. She knew the question that was about to fall out of his mouth, “A-are you  _BECA_?”

The brunette forced a small smile onto her face, “Uh, yeah..”

The nervous expression on the man’s face broadened as he exhaled excitably, “Wow! Great..um..I’m Dan by the way.” and Beca looked down at the hand that he held out at her. She raised her eyebrows then shook the man’s hand politely.

“Nice to meet you Dan.”

So  _this_  was Dan. The Dan that Chloe spoke about from time to time when mentioning how her day had been. He looked a  _lot_  younger than Beca had thought he would, and suddenly the woman didn’t feel so threatened. She’d be lying if she hadn’t felt the tiniest pit of jealousy during Chloe’s first week working here, the redhead having mentioned Dan in what had felt like every other sentence. But Chloe had assured her it was because Dan had been working with her every single day, not because she  _fancied_  him.

And Beca looked the young man up and down and immediately agreed with her wife’s statement from a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, he definitely  _wasn’t_ Chloe’s type.

“So uh..are you picking up or-?” Dan asked nervously, wondering why in the hell  _BECA_  was here and currently without pet.

And Beca smirked, “Yeah something like that, kid.”

“Did..did you need me to find out how to hurry things along..?”

Beca watched with amusement as the young man looked down at her nervously, clearly trying to work out why she was here. Chloe had told Beca she hadn’t revealed to her colleagues that she was married or had a wife, to try to protect their secret relationship that much further. A secret relationship that probably wouldn’t be secret for much longer, especially since Chloe’s phone call earlier and Beca offering to pick her up from work for once.

“Nah I’m good waiting here.”

“Can I get you a coffee or something while you wait?” Dan tried, desperate to impress the superstar, secretly wanting to become her friend because she was  _so_  cool and his brother would be  _so_  jealous.

“I’m good Dan.” Beca said kindly, always finding it quite funny when people got nervous around her, adding “But thanks.”

The young man nodded, then wandered back over to the reception desk. Beca watched as he said something to the young receptionist and she had to admit,  _they_  made a cute couple.

The recording artist sat up a little straighter, her heart skipping a beat as she watched her wife stride through a door behind the reception desk and over to Dan, holding a bunch of paperwork out at him. “Dan. If you could put those in with Milo’s other paperwork please.” she heard Chloe say in a kind but firm voice and the young man quickly nodded then darted over to the little room beside the reception desk that Beca suspected was where the files were kept. Yeah, there was no way her wife fancied him.

Beca watched as the woman disappeared back through the door and the brunette had to admit, Chloe looked hot in scrubs with her red hair in long loose waves like that. She wondered if her wife was allowed to bring a set of scrubs home with her…

_Here babe. Just in waiting room xx_

Beca sent the text then looked up from her phone, smiling softly when she saw that Chloe had read it and was replying straight away.

_Eek! Can’t wait to see you!! Xx_

The brunette smiled at her wife’s excitable response. She was still getting used to calling Chloe her wife.  _Loving_  getting to call Chloe her wife.

_Can’t wait to see you either ;) xx_

And within a couple of minutes of her sending that text, Beca looked up to see her wife stride through that door behind the reception desk again, now changed out of her scrubs and in a cute light sweater and skinny jeans, her hair still down over her shoulders. This time Chloe immediately looked out into the waiting area, her smile broadening when she saw her wife sat by the door of the Practice. Beca held a hand up as a small wave to acknowledge her wife, and Chloe felt her stomach twist with excitement. She still got so excited to see Beca.

The redhead had to admit, the five years she’d spent away at Vet School, only seeing Beca during the holidays and the occasional weekend that Beca was free to fly Chloe out to wherever she was, had been challenging. She’d gone from sharing a crappy fold-out bed with her best friend for two years, to only seeing her every few weeks for a couple of days. But they’d swapped promise rings and vowed that they would be together forever no matter what.

Those times apart all seemed worth it now they were married and finally living properly together in LA. It had been six blissful weeks since she’d graduated and Chloe couldn’t be happier.

“Psst, Chloe!”

The vet turned at the sound of her name and saw Dan and Emelia stood in the doorway of the ‘filing room’, motioning for her to join them. They looked nervous. Excited. And Chloe walked over to them with a curious expression on her face.

“What are you guys up to?” she asked in an amused voice and the two youngsters peered around the corner into the waiting area, before snapping back into the ‘filing room’ with small gasps.

“ _BECA_ ’s here!” Emelia whispered loudly.

“You know… _BECA_?” Dan whispered with raised eyebrows, a grin on his face that matched the young woman’s beside him. “Multi-award winning music artist,  _BECA_?”

Chloe couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face, “Ohh..” she said quietly, entertaining the youngsters for a moment.

“She said she’s waiting to pick up but I can’t find a pet on the system anywhere that has her down as the owner!” Emelia whispered in a suspicious tone.

“Huh..” Chloe said quietly, though her smile hadn’t faded, and she peered back out at her wife who was now stood at the reception desk, grinning over at her and giving her a quick wink.

The redhead turned back to her colleagues, “Hey, have you thought that maybe she might be picking up her wife instead of her pet?” she said with a shrug, and the grins on Dan and Emelia’s faces wavered as they began processing what this might mean.

“Wha-? She-?” Dan stumbled, pointing from the waiting area to Chloe and Chloe’s smile broadened.

“Yeeeeeah.”

And Chloe Mitchell stepped aside, looking from the two youngsters who peered tentatively out of the room to her wife, who now stood at the reception desk grinning at them all.

“Hi!” Beca said, giving them a curt wave. Dan and Emelia stood in stunned silence, their mouths open in shock as they watched Chloe walk away from them, around the reception desk, and up to her wife, smoothing a hand affectionately across the brunette’s back. “Ready babe?” Beca mumbled quietly to her wife, mirroring Chloe’s smile.

“Uhuh!” Chloe said brightly, then looked at her two stunned colleagues, “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?”

Dan and Emelia said nothing, but simply nodded slowly, then watched as  _BECA_  and Chloe walked hand-in-hand through the waiting area, and out of the doors of the Veterinary Practice to head home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the positive feedback and encouragement guys! Hope you enjoyed the epilogue :)


End file.
